UK’s Exit From COVID-19 Lockdown Needs To Take Into Consideration The Rise In Domestic Abuse, According To Theresa May

Former Prime Minster, Theresa May, has said that the Government must take into consideration domestic abuse and mental health as it plans the UK’s eventual exit from the current coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Theresa May stated, as MPs discussed the long awaited Domestic Abuse Bill following its second reading, that measures to tackle the pandemic must not do “more damage than the disease itself”.

She went on to say that the Police and Local Authorities should undertake random visits to homes where there have been previous reports of violence or properties where domestic abuse perpetrators are known to live during the coronavirus lockdown. Adding that these visits should be undertaken cautiously so as to not worsen any situations for any victims of abuse.

This follows a Government report which stated that there had been a “surge” in the number of domestic violence incidents since the lockdown measures were first put in place. Furthermore, there has also been an increase in the number of killings and phone calls to Refuge’s National Domestic Abuse helpline, which increased by a staggering 49% in a three week period.

Domestic Abuse Bill

As mentioned above, Theresa May’s comments were made as MPs discussed the Domestic Abuse Bill, which was first introduced into Parliament in July last year. The overall aim of the Bill is to protect and support victims of abuse and punish offenders.

As stated on the Home Office website, “the Bill will:

• create a statutory definition of domestic abuse, emphasising that domestic abuse is not just physical violence, but can also be emotional, coercive or controlling, and economic abuse
• establish a Domestic Abuse Commissioner, to stand up for victims and survivors, raise public awareness, monitor the response of local authorities, the justice system and other statutory agencies and hold them to account in tackling domestic abuse
• provide for a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Domestic Abuse Protection Order
• place a duty on local authorities in England to provide support to victims of domestic abuse and their children in refuges and other safe accommodation
• prohibit perpetrators of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in the family courts in England and Wales
• create a statutory presumption that victims of domestic abuse are eligible for special measures in the criminal courts (for example, to enable them to give evidence via a video link)
• enable domestic abuse offenders to be subject to polygraph testing as a condition of their licence following their release from custody
• place the guidance supporting the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (“Clare’s law”) on a statutory footing
• ensure that where a local authority, for reasons connected with domestic abuse, grants a new secure tenancy to a social tenant who had or has a secure lifetime or assured tenancy (other than an assured shorthold tenancy) this must be a secure lifetime tenancy
• extend the extraterritorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to further violent and sexual offences.”

As the Bill was discussed, MPs commented that it also needed to provide greater protection to migrant abuse victims.

Robert Buckland, Justice Secretary, commented that the Bill aimed to raise awareness of domestic abuse across the UK, to protect and support victims and to also “improve performance across all national and local agencies”.