[1] It was chaired by former solicitor general Vera Baird QC supported by Kate Green MP (Shadow Minister for Equalities) and Stella Creasy MP (Shadow Home Office Minister) and was established to examine the cumulative effects of Coalition Government policy on women's safety, reporting its findings to the Labour Party’s policy making process.
Chair of the Consultation Vera Baird has said:[2] Violence against women support services are falling like ninepins from the dual blows of local authority and government funding...
Following Kenneth Clarke's ill-informed comments on rape[3] the impression is that nobody is fighting women's corner in a sea of disregard.
We will call for evidence, hold hearings, talk to survivors of violence, travel nationwide and do everything we can to ascertain whether these worries are justified, how to point this out to the government so they an put them right and how women's safety can be improved not endangered.
They quote tax and welfare and public sector jobs cuts driving women out of work back into the home, and making them vulnerable by removing the power of income and independence from them.The consultation held its first evidence session in London on Monday the 19th of December 2011[4] with ten expert organisations on women's safety giving evidence on the impact of recent Government decisions to their work.