Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the proportion of people convicted of assault in a domestic context who were charged with the offence of common assault under Section 39 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988 in the latest period for which data is available.

The Ministry of Justice does not hold the data requested. Offences involving domestic abuse can take various forms and are prosecuted under the offence in law that best reflects their nature and circumstances, for example, assault or harassment. These offences can take the form of domestic abuse or non-domestic abuse and data collected from courts does not distinguish between the two.

This Government continues to take concerted action to pursue perpetrators of domestic abuse. We have:

• Introduced a new wider statutory definition of domestic abuse, recognising all forms of abuse beyond physical violence, such as emotional and economic abuse, in law for the first time.
• Created new offences such as non-fatal strangulation or suffocation, and extended the coercive and controlling behaviour offence to include former partners.
• Extended the time in which victims are able to report domestic abuse-related assaults, so that more can seek justice.