Draft Domestic Abuse Bill: overarching documents

The Domestic Abuse Bill will:

• provide for a statutory definition of domestic abuse
• establish the office of Domestic Abuse Commissioner and set out the commissioner’s functions and powers
• provide for a new Domestic Abuse Protection Notice and Domestic Abuse Protection Order
• prohibit perpetrators of domestic and other forms of abuse from cross-examining their victims in person in the family courts (and prevent victims from having to cross-examine their abusers) and give the court discretion to prevent cross-examination in person where it would diminish the quality of the witness’s evidence or cause the witness significant distress
• create a statutory presumption that complainants of an offence involving behaviour that amounts to domestic abuse are eligible for special measures in the criminal courts
• 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 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 extra-territorial jurisdiction of the criminal courts in England and Wales to further violent and sexual offences

You can read the domestic abuse consultation response and draft bill .

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