M
Member
Speaking in the House of Lords on 3 December 2025
Debate
Sentencing BillContribution
We can take as an example one of the most widely used protective orders for domestic abuse victims for which a breach is a criminal offence: a non-molestation order. In 2019-20, 32,075 non-molestation orders were issued, and in the same year, 11,900 breaches were recorded by police. Even of those recorded, only 35% of cases resulted in a charge. Of course, most of these orders in the official statistics will not be in relation to offenders on licence in the community. But if, overall, 65% of recorded breaches do not result in a charge, it is unlikely that most domestic abuse perpetrators being recalled to custody because they posed an increased risk to their victim would have been charged with a breach-related offence. On top of this, domestic abuse-related offences take longer to reach an outcome than non-domestic abuse-related ones. It is therefore unlikely that domestic abuse perpetrators who have committed a further offence will be charged in time for the further offence exclusion to take effect within the 56 days of fixed-term recall. So the cycle continues.
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