Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will take legislative steps to extend the definition of domestic abuse to include abuse of kinship carers by people in the wider family of the child that they care for.

The Home Office does not currently have plans to extend the definition of domestic abuse.

The statutory definition of domestic abuse, contained within the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, captures a wide range of relationships and applies to kinship carers where they are related to a perpetrator.

The Department for Education published a new Kinship Care statutory guidance for local authorities in October 2024. This sets out the support and services local authorities should provide to children living in kinship care and to kinship carers. The guidance also includes a definition of "kinship carer" to create a common understanding of who they are.

The Government is delivering over 140 peer support groups across England, available for all kinship carers to access alongside a wider package of training and support.