Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what plans he has to increase the number of specialist domestic violence courts.

This Government is committed to enhancing support for victims of domestic abuse and improving the criminal court’s response to domestic abuse cases.

We have launched Domestic Abuse Protection Orders, combining the strongest elements of other protective orders to protect victims from all forms of domestic abuse. We are introducing a domestic abuse identifier at sentencing in criminal cases to enable police, prisons and probation to more consistently identify domestic abuse offenders. In the Family Courts, we are expanding the Pathfinder pilots, which are helping to ensure that children’s voices are heard in every case, and providing access to specialist support.

In addition, as recommended by the Independent Sentencing Review, this Government is considering how to expand the use of Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts in the criminal division. We will provide an update on this work in due course.