Domestic Abuse Aggravated Offences

1. What recent discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the potential merits of creating new domestic abuse aggravated offences.

The Government are absolutely committed to tackling the scourge of domestic abuse and halving violence against women and girls in a decade. We are implementing a domestic abuse identifier at sentencing to ensure consistent recognition of domestic abuse offenders across the whole justice system. That will strengthen victim protection and offender management, delivering on a recommendation made by the independent sentencing review.

I am sickened by the frequency with which I hear from victims and survivors of domestic abuse about the ways in which the criminal justice system has aggravated their trauma. One constituent recently told me that she was living in fear after her abuser was released early and the Probation Service failed to enforce probation conditions. Another has seen the charges against her ex-partner scheduled for criminal trial in two years’ time, and in the meantime he continues to exert control through the family courts. Will the Minister meet me to review what has gone wrong in those two cases and what lessons can be learned about how to use identifiers of aggravation to give victims and survivors more protection?

I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question and for all his work to amplify the voices of victims and survivors. Like him, I am sickened by the treatment of the majority of women and girls who go through this in our criminal justice system. He will know that we inherited a criminal justice system in absolute crisis. That is why we conducted a once-in-a-generation review of our courts process—the Leveson review—which the Government will respond to shortly, and a once-in-a-generation sentencing review, to consider exactly the issues that he is talking about. I will happily meet him to discuss this further.

My constituent, who had been the victim of historical domestic abuse by both her partner and her children, recently raised with me the need for a clearer understanding and definition of child-to-parent abuse. At the time of her abuse, she did not know that what her children were doing could be classified as domestic abuse, and both the police and social services failed to understand that she was the victim, not her children. Will the Minister provide an update on the work to reach a legal definition of child-to-parent abuse.

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that vital point. She will, like me, be horrified by the results of the Femicide Census report this week, which show a rise in mothers being killed by their sons. We must tackle that as a society. She will be pleased to know that what she is talking about will be in the upcoming violence against women and girls strategy.