FiLiA Statement on the Domestic Abuse Bill

FiLiA welcomes that after nearly 4 years of work and countless more years campaigning, the Domestic Abuse (DA) Bill finally received  Royal Assent  this week. Huge thanks to the many women, survivors and campaigners that have made this happen. It brings with it many welcome measures, the inclusion of economic abuse in the definition, and that children will be seen as victims in their own right.

The DA Bill - which only applies to England and Wales - will strengthen the law surrounding controlling or coercive behaviour to include post-separation abuse, target revenge porn, end the "rough sex defence" in court and non-fatal strangulation will now be an offence.

It creates new protection orders, bans cross-examination by perpetrators in courts, gives Clare’s Law (allowing victims to find out about partners’ previous offending) a statutory base and puts a duty on local authorities to fund refuges.

Importantly it gives our new Domestic Abuse Commissioner statutory powers to hold agencies to account for their response. These are all important victories for survivors and doubtless will save lives.

But there is still a lot of work to do. The government didn’t agree to a serial stalkers register and plans instead to widen guidance in the existing MAPPA provisions which are already overstretched and under-resourced.

Perhaps most importantly it fails migrant women. Campaigners did manage to get some concessions, but the fact is the bill doesn’t protect all women, so cannot be seen as either landmark or transformational legislation, and we must keep working until all our sisters are protected.