Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to protect domestic abuse victims when the person who abused them has been released from prison.

The Probation Service works with other agencies to manage the risks perpetrators pose on release from prison and to ensure the safety and wellbeing of victims, potential victims, and children.  For domestic abuse offenders convicted of relevant sexual or violent offences this will be under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). Where the offender is released on licence, there may be specific conditions designed to protect victims from unwanted contact with offenders.

HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) updated its Domestic Abuse Policy Framework in September 2022. (Domestic abuse policy framework - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). It sets out the expectations for managing domestic abuse cases clearly and comprehensively.

When parliamentary time allows, we will legislate so that those convicted of controlling or coercive behaviour (CCB) with a sentence of twelve months or more imprisonment or a suspended sentence will be automatically subject to MAPPA. This will place a duty on the Police, the Probation Service and a range of other agencies to share information and work together to manage the risks the individual poses. In the meantime, we will start work now on an operating model for HMPPS and the Police to use the ViSOR public protection database to share information on CCB offenders while they are subject to supervision.

A project later this year will test the effectiveness of electronic monitoring with domestic abuse offenders on licence, including testing how it can protect existing and potential victims of domestic abuse offences.

In July 2021, we commenced a three year pilot of polygraph testing with high-risk domestic perpetrators released from prison on licence. If the pilot is successful in strengthening how we risk manage domestic abuse perpetrators, we will roll this out across England and Wales.