Public Affairs

We spoke about the new definition of domestic abuse, which now covers both emotional and financial abuse. It means that a wider range of domestic abuse incidents are being reported to the police.

 

The real risk here is that serious incidents where police intervention is vital, can get lost in a stream of allegations and counter-allegations.

Whilst the inclusion of coercive control is very important, the new law needs to recognise that denying access to children, using them as weapons or undermining their relationships with their parents, and often entire side of their families, are also strong and frequent features of coercive control.

 

The problem with the family justice system is structural and a single law will not solve it. The solution lies in making a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting the norm and promoting out-of-court family agreements. Where matters require court intervention a significant increase in funding, whereby courtrooms and judges are available to actually hear cases of abuse, including parental alienation, are heard and resolved in weeks and not months and years. The system must also address the problems caused by false allegations and exaggerated claims without proper justification. Often there are allegations and counter-allegations when parenting arrangements are contested, where both parents and their children are potential victims of abuse.

 

 

You can watch the full episode here:

 

The Bill is due to have a second reading (no date set yet). You can follow progress of it here. A Government Factsheet on the Domestic Abuse 2020 Bill is here. If you have relevant experience, you can still contact your MP and express your concerns so that they can propose amendments to the Bill. There may be more time than we anticipated originally for consultation as the Covid-19 crisis will very likely cause the passage of this Bill to be delayed again.