Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the statutory eligibility criteria in section 4.3.1 of his Department's publication on the home detention curfew (HDC), published on 6 June 2023, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of extending the list of people excluded from eligibility for release under the HDC scheme to include individuals convicted of a domestic abuse offence.

In June 2023, we introduced further restrictions on which offenders can be released on HDC by adding offences linked to domestic abuse to our presumed unsuitable list. Being presumed unsuitable means an application for HDC will not even be considered unless there are exceptional circumstances for the individual offender. We added offences linked to domestic abuse – including harassment and stalking.