Natalie McGarry – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Natalie McGarry on 2016-07-11.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, when the Government plans to ratify the Istanbul Convention.

Karen Bradley

The previous Government signed the Istanbul Convention to show the strong commitment it placed on tackling violence against women and girls and this Government remains committed to ratifying it.

The UK already complies with the vast majority of the Convention’s articles but further amendments to domestic law, to take extra-territorial jurisdiction over a range of offences (as required by Article 44), are necessary before the Convention can be ratified.

We are currently considering the approach to implementing the extra-territorial jurisdiction requirements in England and Wales and will seek to legislate when the approach is agreed and Parliamentary time allows.