Today, we’re demonstrating further how a Conservative majority government will deliver on people’s priorities by tackling serious violence, making our communities safer. We’ll give vulnerable victims the support they need to cope and recover by:
- Supporting rape victims – with a £15 million cash boost to cut delays, speed up charging decisions, and keep more victims engaged with the process until trial.
- Protecting domestic abuse victims by passing our Domestic Abuse Bill by Spring 2020 and implementing it quickly.
- Enshrining the rights of victims in law - with a Victims’ Law which that guarantees their rights and the level of support they should receive.
- Boosting funding for specialist victim services – with a victim surcharge which imposes a levy on convicted offenders based on their sentence, with income contributing to the funding the MoJ provides to victim services.
- Reforming the parole system – with a root-and-branch review of prisoner release arrangements and reform the parole system to make it more transparent.
In addition, the Domestic Abuse Bill has been introduced to Parliament. The Bill will create a legal definition of domestic abuse to provide clarity that domestic abuse can be financial, verbal and emotional as well as physical and sexual and that critically it is about patterns of abuse over time. Measures in the Bill also include the introduction of new Domestic Abuse Protection Notices and Domestic Abuse Protection Orders to further protect victims and place restrictions on the actions of offenders.
If any of the issues mentioned affect you, please make find guidance on the Government website on how to deal with domestic abuse.
