Key Facts

• The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 is being amended.
• New clause 35 aims to grant leave to remain within three months of the Act's passage.
• Subsection (4) ensures continuous access to services during pending applications for indefinite leave to remain.
• County lines gangs are recruiting young women to launder proceeds of crime.
• £1.5 million has been allocated for a pilot project supporting migrant victims with no recourse to public funds.
• The review aims to be published by Report stage and will help inform future funding decisions.
• Migrant victims face challenges under current immigration rules.
• There is a need for policy changes to better protect and support migrant victims of domestic abuse.
• The Domestic Abuse Bill aims to address these issues but faces resistance due to political considerations.
• The amendment introduces an extension of the initial bail period from one month to three months.
• A senior officer must confirm that the case falls within the definition of 'domestic abuse'.
• This change aims to maintain bail during the pre-charge period and reduce the need for bail extensions.
• The Policing and Crime Act 2017 restricted pre-charge bail to 28 days.
• Use of bail conditions in domestic abuse cases dropped by 65% in the first three months after the law was enacted.
• Police Superintendents Association stated that gathering evidence for a charge is challenging within 28 days.
• Peter Bone's case involved a lack of risk assessment before someone was released under investigation.
• The Domestic Abuse Bill is being discussed in relation to its implications on risk assessments and protection measures.
• New Clause 32 seeks to ensure that refuge addresses cannot be disclosed as part of court orders without express permission from the court.
• The clause allows for alternative methods of serving court orders on individuals residing in refuges, such as using office addresses or other methods specified by the Family Procedure Rules 2010.
• The current approach by family courts is inconsistent and can breach women's rights to a private life.
• Refuges are established to provide sanctuary and confidentiality for victims of domestic abuse.
• Alternative service arrangements already exist under the Family Procedure Rules 2010.
• The new clause amends Section 76 of the Criminal Justice and Immigration Act 2008.
• It seeks to allow survivors of domestic abuse to use reasonable force in self-defence against their abusers, mirroring the protections for householders against intruders.
• The case of Sally Challen highlights the need for legal recognition of coercive control in cases of domestic abuse.
• The new clause aims to give victims of domestic abuse the same level of protection as householders reacting to intruders.
• It would extend section three of the Criminal Law Act 1967 to cover situations involving domestic abuse survivors.
• The Government believes existing self-defence laws can help victims and that any changes should be made through careful consideration rather than statutory amendments.
• Peter Bone addresses procedural aspects of discussing a new clause related to domestic abuse in Committee.
• He explains that Members can come back to speak again after initial discussions.
• The Victims Commissioner has written to the Home Secretary expressing concerns about unsupervised contact between parents who are on bail for domestic abuse-related offences.
• A study by Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service found that two-thirds of child contact cases involved allegations of domestic abuse, yet in 23% of these cases, unsupervised contact was ordered at the first hearing.
• Analysis by the Victoria Derbyshire show and Women’s Aid revealed that at least 21 children were killed during contact with fathers who were perpetrators of domestic abuse between 2006 and 2019.
• The new clause aims to prevent personal data of domestic abuse victims from being used for immigration control without consent.
• An expert panel on family courts is considering allegations of risk of harm in private law children proceedings, informed by over 1,200 submissions.
• Recommendations from the expert panel will be published soon.
• Marian, a constituent of Jess Phillips, was wrongly detained in Yarl's Wood after being threatened with death.
• The Home Office has recognized that perpetrators use immigration status as a tactic for coercive control towards migrant women.
• There is no safe reporting mechanism currently available to protect victims from retaliatory measures based on their immigration status.
• Freedom of information requests show that 27 out of 45 police forces in England and Wales share victims' details with the Home Office.
• Specialist agencies estimate resolving insecure immigration status takes between four months and two years.
• The speaker argues data sharing is a breach of Human Rights Act 1998 and international human rights obligations.
• New clause 37 seeks to prevent personal information about domestic abuse victims from being shared for immigration control without consent.
• National Police Chiefs’ Council strengthened its guidance in 2018 to encourage consistent data sharing practices across the country.
• Data exchanged between police and law enforcement are processed on the basis of public interest as per articles 6 and 9 of GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
• New clause would facilitate occupiers removing one joint tenant due to domestic violence.
• Victims are not required to have a local connection for social housing applications.
• Secretary of State must make regulations within two months of Domestic Abuse Act 2020 passing.
• Current tenancy laws leave survivors particularly vulnerable to homelessness and further abuse.
• Abusers can unilaterally terminate a joint tenancy, putting the victim at significant risk.
• Seeking an injunction is usually time-limited and does not prevent breach by the abuser.
• The new clause sets out that where there has been a conviction for a domestic abuse-related offence, the court must make an order to transfer the joint tenancy to the victim’s sole name.
• The clause provides a straightforward mechanism for victims of abuse with joint tenancies from social landlords to seek the transfer of the tenancy to their sole name and prevent the abuser from ending the tenancy in the meantime.
• In cases where a domestic abuse protection notice or order has been served, there is a presumption that the court will make an order transferring the tenancy to the victim’s sole name.
• Tenants often prefer to pay for repairs themselves rather than waiting for council intervention.
• New clauses seek to protect tenants from eviction if an application against abuse has been made.
• Local authority guidance states residency requirements should not apply in cases of domestic abuse but this is not always followed consistently.
• The case R (on the application of HA) v. Ealing London Borough Council found local authorities acted unlawfully by failing to consider exceptional circumstances for victims fleeing abuse.
• The statutory guidance regarding refuge accommodation did not exist until a legal case was won by a woman living in a refuge against Sandwell Borough Council.
• Homelessness teams are refusing support to women escaping abuse if they do not have a local connection, affecting nearly one fifth of Women’s Aid’s No Woman Turned Away project clients in 2016 and 2017.
• The Government propose to pay for a statutory duty on local authorities to fund support in refuges from central funds.
• The new clause would apply only to local authority and housing association periodic tenancies.
• Victims may face unresolved debts or costs if perpetrators are removed from joint tenancies.
• Existing legislation and guidance already provide additional preference within allocation schemes for people requiring urgent rehousing due to domestic abuse.
• New Clause 46 provides a statutory defence for victims of domestic abuse.
• The clause covers both adults and minors who commit an offence as a direct consequence of being or having been a victim of domestic abuse.
• The Secretary of State may amend regulations related to this clause.
• The statement outlines specific offences under multiple Acts including the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, Public Order Act 1936, Firearms Act 1968, Theft Act 1968, Criminal Damage Act 1971, Immigration Act 1971, and many others.
• The offences listed range from false imprisonment to murder, soliciting murder, threatening to kill, wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, child destruction, assault with intent to resist arrest, and various sexual and terrorism-related offences.
• The schedule is designed to exclude certain serious criminal offences from the defence for victims of domestic abuse who commit an offence under the Domestic Abuse Bill.
• New clause 46 introduces a statutory defence for survivors of domestic abuse.
• The proposed defence is modelled on section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015.
• Subsection (1) of new clause 46 states that a person aged 18 or over when committing an offence would not be guilty, which may be a typo.
• New clause 46 is based on section 45 of the Modern Slavery Act.
• Section 45 grants legal protections to victims of trafficking who are compelled to offend.
• Nearly half of prison sentences for women are for theft offences, predominantly shoplifting.
• A case involving YS demonstrates the current law's inadequacies in recognizing duress due to domestic abuse.
• The Domestic Abuse Bill aims to raise awareness and improve support for victims.
• Legal defences such as duress and self-defence already exist for cases involving domestic abuse.
• Concerns about creating anomalies with other offences if a new defence model is introduced, similar to the Modern Slavery Act.
• Peter Bone describes the Minister's comments as 'totally bogus' but one of the best points of order he has heard.
• The Domestic Abuse Bill Committee has concluded its deliberations.