Home Secretary Suella Braverman announced “one of the toughest suites of measures” ever to combat domestic violence in England and Wales.
Under the new arrangements, the most serious domestic violence abusers will be monitored more closely and subjected to electronic tagging to protect their vulnerable partners, ex-partners, and children.
Violence against women and girls will now be categorised as a national threat, on par with terrorism, serious and organised crime, and child sexual abuse.
Speaking during a visit to Warrington in the north of England on Feb. 20, Braverman said: “Domestic abuse is horrendous crime, and enough is enough, and today I’m announcing one of the toughest suites of measures that the Government has put forward to better protect victims of domestic abuse.
“I’m changing the law to ensure that there’s more robust monitoring of perpetrators of domestic abuse.
“We’re introducing measures to ensure that we will be able to tag offenders of domestic abuse, and we will also be adding offenders of domestic abuse onto the violence and sex offenders’ register.”
The Home Office says it will invest 8.4 million pounds over two years to fund specialist victim support programmes and ensure police forces prioritise combating violence against women and girls.
Around 2.4 million people in England and Wales experienced domestic abuse in the 12 months and 20 percent of homicides follow a pattern of domestic violence, according to the Home Office.
Under the proposals police, prison, and probation services will have to jointly manage offenders with a conviction of controlling or coercive behaviour who have been given sentences of 12 months or more, or a suspended sentence.
These offenders will also be recorded on the violent and sex offender register from now on.
Codeword Scheme Rolled Out to Job Centres
A new scheme will also be piloted in Jobcentres around the country, whereby victims can use the Ask for Ani codeword to discreetly signal their predicament.The scheme is already being used in some pharmacies and has led to emergency support being accessed on average once a week.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “No woman or girl should ever have to feel unsafe in her home or community and I am determined to stamp out these appalling crimes.”
Work and Pensions Secretary Mel Stride said: “As safe spaces with strong links to the wider community, DWP Jobcentres are uniquely placed to help vulnerable people access help on a local or national level.”
Patrick Ryan, chief executive of domestic abuse charity Hestia, said: “The more opportunities we can provide for victims to access vital specialist support in a safe way, the more lives that can be saved.”
The Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, Nicole Jacobs, said the new proposals would make it a “strategic policing requirement” to prioritise violence against women and girls.
She told the BBC: “People who have had convictions of coercion and controlling behaviour, the intention of the government in the future is to put them under arrangements, multi-agency arrangements, that some other perpetrators have and until that can happen legally they have asked for those perpetrators with convictions of a year or more to be put on a violent and sex offenders’ register.”
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper said: “Labour first pushed for a domestic abuse register years ago and so we welcome the eventual commitment to introduce one. But the government isn’t moving quickly enough.
“Ministers promised to make violence against women and girls part of the strategic policing requirement a year ago, after months of pressure from Labour, so it should never have been delayed for this long.
“They still haven’t agreed to Labour’s plan to put domestic abuse specialists into 999 control rooms, nor have they taken action to reverse the shocking collapse in rape charges or record levels of victims dropping out of the criminal justice system.”
