Lord Street bank to offer ‘safe space’ for domestic abuse victims

HSBC bosses at the Lord Street based bank has pledged to provide people experiencing domestic abuse with access to a “safe space” within the branch.

The Southport bank will provide an area for people to phone a specialist helpline, contact a support service, or speak to a friend or family member.

The move is part of domestic abuse charity Hestia’s “UK Says No More” campaign, which was initially launched in pharmacies and aims to increase the availability of specialist support for victims of domestic abuse.

Some 4,000 HSBC employees have received specialist training as part of the scheme.

It comes after figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed that in the year ending March 2021, the number of police reports made in relation to domestic abuse in England and Wales had increased by 6%.

In that year, 613,929 incidents were reported, up from 581,659 incidents in the year ending March 2020.

The ONS said that the change marked an end to “the trend of consecutive annual decreases seen in recent years.”