Women’s Aid responds to Sentencing Act receiving Royal Assent

Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, comments:

“We are pleased to see the introduction of a judicial finding for domestic abuse introduced by the Sentencing Act, which received Royal Assent this week. The indicator is a welcome measure, which will begin to address the gaps in data for perpetrators past the point of conviction. However, we continue to call for sentencing that adequately reflects the harm of these crimes.  

We welcome provisions to strengthen community sentences, such as electronic monitoring and restriction zones. While we understand the need to address prison overcrowding and ensure the safety of the prison population and prison officers, we remain extremely concerned about the impact that the recall provisions will have on survivors of domestic abuse. 

Perpetrators of domestic abuse are often repeat offenders who pose serious threats to their victims beyond prison release; re-releasing prisoners back into the community without having conducted a risk-assessment, puts survivors in danger and is in direct contradiction to the Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls.  

We welcome investment in probation services, as we know that these services have been significantly under-resourced and are failing survivors. We continue to call for life-saving specialist services to be consulted as part of Multi-agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA) and for this process to be undertaken pre-release for every inmate with a judicial finding of domestic abuse. “