Consultation starts on "landmark" Domestic Abuse Bill

This week (Monday 21 January) saw the publication of what the government is hailing as a landmark Bill on Domestic Abuse. The draft Bill is aimed at supporting victims and their families and pursuing offenders. It comes as it is revealed domestic abuse issues cost the country £66 billion a year.

The government says the new legislation will:

• introduce the first ever statutory government definition of domestic abuse to specifically include economic abuse and controlling and manipulative non-physical abuse - this will enable everyone, including victims themselves, to understand what constitutes abuse and will encourage more victims to come forward
• establish a Domestic Abuse Commissioner to drive the response to domestic abuse issues
• introduce new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to further protect victims and place restrictions on the actions of offenders
• prohibit the cross-examination of victims by their abusers in the family courts
• provide automatic eligibility for special measures to support more victims to give evidence in the criminal courts

The Home Office has also published a report into the economic and social cost of domestic abuse, which reveals the crime cost England and Wales £66 billion in 2016 to 2017.

According to the research, the vast majority of this cost (£47 billion) was a result of the physical and emotional harm of domestic abuse, however it also includes other factors such as cost to health services (£2.3 billion), police (£1.3 billion) and victim services (£724 million).