Time to scrap the £150 fee for victims of domestic abuse

[MumsnetGuestPosts]

Two women are killed each week by a current or former partner and one in four will experience domestic violence in their lifetime.

Legal Aid is a lifeline for women fleeing domestic abuse. It helps them to protect themselves, their children and secures their financial situation. One of the accepted forms of evidence is a letter from a GP.

Since 2016 I have been raising in the House of Lords the outrageous situation whereby GPs can charge the victims of domestic abuse up to £150 for legal aid referral letters that confirm their injuries are a result of abuse thereby enabling the victim to apply for legal aid.

Successive Ministers from the Despatch Box have expressed support for the charges to be waived, but have not taken the opportunity to end this practice. Some GP practices have voluntarily rewritten their charging policies when light has been shone on this little-known fact.

It is true that the majority of GPs do not charge for these letters, but the fact is that a significant minority do and despite all the calls for this to stop, expressions of support for victims, and even the British Medical Association having a policy that no victim of domestic abuse should be charged a fee for a legal aid referral letter. The practise continues to this day.

It was Wythenshawe Safespots, a campaigning organisation based in Manchester, that first alerted people to this dreadful situation and started the campaign to Scrap the Fee.

The Domestic Abuse Bill has recently started its passage through the House of Lords, and I am hopeful that the Bill will be improved during its passage through the Lords with many changes agreed before returning to the House of Commons.

On Monday I tabled a new clause to the Bill which will stop GPs who have a contract with the NHS from charging victims of abuse for legal aid referral letters.

To get this amendment passed in the House of Lords and to be accepted in the House of Commons we need a campaign both inside and outside Parliament to highlight how wrong these charges are, calling on members of both Houses to finally deal with this issue and commit to scrapping the fee once and for all.

It is everyone’s responsibility to play their part to stop domestic violence and abuse and this is the right thing to do on an issue that has been ignored for far too long. There just needs to be the will in Government and Parliament to do it.

[MissLucyEyelesbarrow]

@JuliaMumsnet

Thanks for your questions and comments on this. We've gone back to Lord Kennedy of Southwark and this is what he says.

"For those asking what you could do, a good place to start is to contact members of the House of Lords asking them to vote for my amendment to the Domestic Abuse Bill to scrap the fee. The bill is soon to go to House of Lords committee stage so peers will be voting on the amendment in a few weeks (it will then go back to the House of Commons later on).

Select a member or members to contact. You can see a list of all members of the House of Lords and their contact details here: Members of the House of Lords.

It seems that Labour, Liberal Democrat, and Green peers are supportive of the amendment so consider concentrating on Tory, Crossbench, and unaffiliated peers, and Bishops.

I know people were asking for a template letter but as parliamentarians often get lots of emails on certain topics that look exactly the same, it helps to make your email personalised. A handwritten letter is a nice change for them too. Here are a few points to include:

· Welcome the Domestic Abuse Bill.
· Ask the Peer to support proposals from around the House to improve the Bill.
· It is good to see from recent announcements that the Government are listening.
· Lord Kennedy of Southwark has tabled an amendment to stop GPs from charging patients for legal aid referral letters where fees of up to £150 have been charged. Only a minority of GPs charge but we have to stop this practice completely.
· The amendment only concerns legal aid referral letters and does not impinge on charges that are levied by GPs for other letters.
· Will you support the amendment to scrap the fee?

There may be other points you want to make. Try to keep your letter as unpolitical as possible. This is not about party political affiliation – it’s just the right thing to do.”

We hope that answers your questions.

MNHQ

Please ask him if he will be claiming his HoL allowance for time spent on this issue? Or is it just GPs he expects to work for free?

[movingonup20]

Rather than saying they should do it for free, better wording should be it's part of their contractual work for the nhs. Drs are professionals that deserve payment just like solicitors need paying eg through legal aid. All fees should be reclaimable from the perpetrator by the state if convicted imho.

[bjjgirl]

The reason these letters are often requested is when the police are perusing a victimless prosecution and therefore the victim has refused to give evidence and stated they do not wish to support the prosecution.

I think the lack of support for the prosecution needs addressing (how can it be made more victim friendly/ supportive) to empower the victims to be confident in the investigation.

[Cheeseandwin5]

The doctors surgery can easily get recompense from the government, women who go in shouldn't have to worry about having funds to pay for things. their only concern is to get themselves and their kids out of the situation. And it doesn't matter if Dr don't always charge. If the possibility is there then the abused person needs to save up just in case, which will put them in danger longer.

[heythereamigo]

These women absolutely shouldn't have to pay, but I also agree that GPS shouldn't be the only ones working for free.

My husband is a GP and for a long time set aside 30mins a day after he'd finished his NHS work to do letters. He was gone for 12 hours a day as it was, and it was a major contributing factor to him quitting his partnership, which is a shame because he's a kind, compassionate doctor who loved working in one of the most socially deprived areas of the UK. He hardly ever charged for any letters, but in the end, had to put his family before his patients.

[BoomBoomsCousin]

Obviously, the women shouldn't be paying. It's shameful (or the product of entitled people who have never been on the breadline) that a government have come up with a scheme whereby, to apply for financial support, you need to get unfunded professional services.

But simply telling doctors they cannot charge is also awful. These are trained professionals and deserve paying just like all the police officers, solicitors, judges, civil servants, and other professionals who will be involved in making the system work. The cost should be coming from state funds, not simply pushed on to the GP to shoulder personally.

[highame]

Have received a response from my MP. Positive and gave lots of info about DV actions, so at least that's good. His final sentence I do not vote for non-Government amendments, of the kind proposed by Lord Kennedy, but I fully appreciate the importance of tackling domestic violence and I will make representations to my Ministerial colleagues on the point you have raised.

[OldFolksTalkinBoutBackinMyDay2]

I do not vote for non-Government amendments...

What's that all about then?

[SarahSimm]

wow, what a story. You have my support as well!
May we change that? idk, sign a petition maybe?

[JuliaMumsnet]

A message and update from Lord Kennedy:

"Safespots, a small charity in the Wythenshawe area of Manchester, started a campaign with a survivor of domestic abuse to stop GPs from charging women for the letters they need to confirm their injuries and access legal aid.

I was shocked to learn this was ever the case which came to light when my friend Tom Watson visited the charity.

Since 2016 I have been raising the issue on the floor of the House of Lords and despite receiving supportive comments from various Government Ministers across four departments, we never seemed to make any progress.

It seemed it was firmly in the too difficult box, though to me it seemed the solution was to just legislate to stop GPs charging these fees.
The fact was most GPs did not charge a fee for these letters and the policy of the BMA was to recommend to their members not to charge a fee. Though for whatever reason we could not get this practice stopped finally everywhere. It left victims in a lottery situation not knowing if their GP charged or did not charge and if your GP did charge then that for me was an unacceptable barrier to seeking justice.

The Domestic Abuse Bill was the perfect opportunity to seek to finally have the charges banned completely everywhere. So, with the backing of Safespots, the Daily Telegraph, Mumsnet and others I tabled amendments to do just that. They attached supported from every bench in the House and I was clear that if this matter was not solved. I was going to vote on the issue at Report Stage, on Monday 15th March 2022.

I believe Ministers were divided on the issue but we had supporters in Government who helped make the case and on Wednesday it was confirmed that the Government were going to lay their own amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill to finally stop fees for there letters being charged and having got the agreement of the Welsh Government the provisions would cover both England and Wales.

There are many people to thank. I will do that on Monday when speaking in the debate but I would in particular like to thank Mumsnet and all the great campaigners in the Mumsnet community who support this welcome and much needed change in the law."

Thanks to all of you who helped with this campaign!

MNHQ