Peer demands action after Pilkington tragedy

Police and local authorities should work together to prevent a repeat of the Pilkington tragedy, says a crossbench peer. Skip related content

Speaking today in the House of Lords, Lord Neill of Bladen asked what the government had done to identify families that were being subjected to the kind of bullying inflicted on Fiona Pilkington.

In 2007 Mrs Pilkington, 38, killed herself and her 18-year-old disabled daughter in a self-started fire after sustained abuse from bullies.

The inquest into her death last month provoked outrage and led to questions about the police and social services' responses to her calls for help.

Lord Neill said Ms Pilkington's repeated pleas to the local authority and social workers for help were met with "virtually no interest".

He said the lack of joined up working between local authorities and police had led to a failure to identify and prevent the incident from happening.

Home Office minister Lord West of Spithead said that 338 crime and disorder reduction partners had been contacted for identification of such households but no response to date had been received.

He admitted that this was worrying, and said such problems were a "real blight" and needed effective responses at the local level.

Lord West added that a whole raft of measures had been brought out to prevent such an incident happening again including, "increased support for victims, tougher action on ASBO breaches"

But he admitted that ASBOs had not been used in the Pilkington case.