Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will bring forward legislative proposals to (a) criminalise a pattern of partner abuse and (b) ensure that the police are not required only to treat each incident comprising such a pattern as a separate crime.

Domestic abuse is already a crime. There are a number of offences that make domestic abuse illegal, including actual bodily harm, grievous bodily harm and assault. The cross-Government definition is clear that domestic abuse is any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive or threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are or have been intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality.

Assault can extend to non-physical harm, and this can include psychological, financial, and emotional abuse. Stalking and harassment legislation, which criminalises a course of conduct, can apply to intimate partner relationships.

Last September, the Home Secretary commissioned Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary to conduct a review of the response to domestic abuse across all police forces. HMIC published its findings in March 2014, emphasising that the key priority is a culture change in the police so that domestic violence and abuse is treated as the crime that it is, and pointing out that the police use the full range of tools already available to them.

The Home Secretary will chair a national oversight group to oversee delivery against each of HMIC's recommendations on which I will also sit.