Brooks Newmark – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Brooks Newmark on 2014-06-17.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans her Department has to bring forward proposals to criminalise coercive control and psychological abuse for the purpose of protection of victims of domestic violence.

Norman Baker

Last September, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of
Constabulary to conduct a review of the response to domestic abuse
across all police forces. HMIC published its findings in March 2014,
emphasising that the key priority is a culture change in the police so that
domestic violence and abuse is treated as the crime that it is and that the
police use the full range of tools already available to them.

In response to the Review, the Home Secretary has established a new national
oversight group, which she is chairing, and on which I sit, to oversee delivery
against each of HMIC’s recommendations. Their first meeting was held
on 10 June. The Home Secretary has also written to chief constables making it clear
that every police force must have an action plan in place by September 2014.

There are a number of offences that make domestic abuse illegal, including
actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm and assault. Assault can extend to
non-physical harm. This Government has introduced stalking and harassment
legislation which can apply to coercive control and psychological abuse.
However, the Government will continue to consider what measures will drive
culture change in the police in response to the findings of the HMIC review.