Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to the Answer of 25 April 2018 to Question 245778 on Domestic Abuse Bill (Draft): Northern Ireland, what pre-existing policy decisions on domestic abuse the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland is working on in the absence of an Assembly.

Discussions are ongoing between the Home Office, Ministry of Justice and the Department of Justice in relation to the application of the landmark Domestic Abuse Bill to Northern Ireland. Details will be announced in due course.

The Department of Justice in Northern Ireland is progressing a range of work in relation to on pre-existing policy decisions on domestic violence and abuse, in conjunction with its statutory, voluntary and community sector partners. including a domestic abuse offence; domestic homicide reviews, a domestic violence and abuse disclosure scheme; a streamlined advocacy support service; behavioural change programmes for those demonstrating concerning behaviours and an advertising campaign to raise awareness of domestic abuse and the availability of the disclosure scheme. These key policy areas were set out in the seven year ‘Stopping Domestic and Sexual Violence and Abuse’ strategy published by Northern Ireland Ministers in 2016.

These are from the following documents: https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/doj/stopping-domestic-sexual-violence-ni.pdf and https://www.justice-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/justice/Year%204%20draft%20Action%20Plan%20Stopping%20Domestic%20and%20Sexual%20Violence%20and%20Abuse%20Strategy.pdf