Member

I am committed to improving the identification and management of domestic abuse offenders across the system through the Bill. Clause 6 introduces a domestic abuse identifier at sentencing, which will help to ensure that cases involving domestic abuse are consistently identified and tracked. This is a meaningful and practical reform. For example, under the current system, an offender could be convicted of an assault, but there is no systematic way of recording the domestic abuse context of that offence. This could lead to the police missing this risk and not disclosing this information to a new partner. With the marker that we are introducing in the Bill, the abuse appears on the offender’s record. This helps the police to spot perpetrators and protect future victims. I thank the noble Baroness for raising this issue, I hope I have provided sufficient reassurances, and I respectfully ask her to withdraw the amendment.