The Government stated its intention Wednesday to publish a strategy on domestic abuse perpetrators as part of a wider domestic abuse strategy due later in 2021. The commitment came as Lords debated an amendment which would have put a legal requirement for a perpetrator strategy into the Bill.
This progress represents a significant victory for the campaign for a domestic abuse perpetrator strategy launched a year ago in parliament and backed by MPs and peers from all political parties as well as over 125 organisations and experts outside parliament including survivors of domestic abuse, academics, charities, local authorities and police and crime commissioners.
The amendment, tabled by Baroness Gabby Bertin, and supported by both the Labour and Liberal Democrat frontbenches, called for a fully-funded domestic abuse perpetrator strategy and the further rollout of evidence-based interventions to prevent and end domestic abuse by responding to perpetrators. Many who support the amendment hope this marks a turning point in government’s ambitions to prevent domestic abuse in the first place, to hold those who are causing harm to account and support anyone who wants to change their behaviour with quality assured interventions.