Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what progress he has made on the expansion of the provision of Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts.

This Government is committed to enhancing support for victims of domestic abuse and improving the criminal court’s response to domestic abuse cases.

In our Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy, the Government committed to rolling out Domestic Abuse Protection Orders – our strongest order yet for domestic abuse - across England and Wales. We are also introducing a domestic abuse identifier at sentencing in criminal cases to enable police, prisons and probation to more consistently identify domestic abuse offenders. This Government has also made trauma-informed training available to all HMCTS court staff, helping them to better understand domestic abuse and apply trauma-informed practice in their interactions with victims.

We are actively considering how to expand the use of Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts in the criminal division as part of our wider work to improve outcomes for victims of domestic abuse, in response to recommendations made by the Independent Sentencing Review.