Domestic abuse victims will receive a wide range of new measures to protect them in what the ministers say will be a landmark legislation.
New laws will for the first time create a legal definition of domestic abuse to include economic abuse and control. The long-awaited legislation will also ban abusers from cross-examining victims in family courts. Campaigners says the measures are a “once in a generation” opportunity to combat the impact of abuse.
Government experts estimate domestic abuse cost society £66 billion in 2016/2017 and it hopes the new changes will improve the response. The money was spent on health treatments, policing and victim services.
The draft Domestic Abuse Bill will:
- Create new powers to force perpetrators into behaviour-changing rehabilitation programmes
- Make victims automatically eligible for special protections when they are giving evidence in criminal trials
- Set up a national “domestic abuse commissioner” tasked with improving the response and support for victims across public services
Two million people aged between 16 -59 told the Crime survey for England and Wales they had been a victim of domestic abuse. 695,000 were male victims and 1.3 million were female victims. 38 arrests were made for every 100 recorded crimes, 89,091 cases resulted in prosecution. 12% of the proportion prosecuted failed after a victim changes their mind about giving evidence against their abuser.
The definition of domestic abuse will specifically recognise that it goes beyond crimes of violence and includes victims who are psychologically manipulated and pressured as well as those who have no control over their finances.
Theresa May promised to overhaul domestic abuse laws over two years ago and the bill was a key pledge in the Queen’s speech 2017. The public consultation closed eight months ago and only now are we seeing the final package.
Suzanne Jacob, head of SafeLives, said: “For too long, we’ve expected victims and children to uproot their lives while the perpetrators remain invisible and unchallenged by the system.
“The new change in approach reflects what hundreds of survivors told SafeLives they wanted – we’re pleased the Government is listening.”
Home Office minister Victoria Atkins said abuse: “can range from anything from controlling bank accounts or taking loans out in her name without her knowledge, or stealing her car keys in the morning so she can’t get to work on time and loses her job and therefore her financial independence.
“In terms of the controlling aspect, for someone to tell someone else that they are not allowed to work – that’s exerting an extraordinary level of control over their lives.
“In this bill, we make it very clear that this sort of coercive controlling behaviour that we see so often in domestic abuse, sadly, is just as unlawful as acts of physical violence.”
