Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to increase penalties for repeat offenders for crimes against women.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a priority for this Government. Violence against women and girls is a term which encapsulates a wide range of behaviours and offences including domestic abuse, so-called honour-based abuse and sexual offences, many of which carry high maximum penalties, including life imprisonment. It does not relate to any single offence.

Sentencing in individual cases is a matter for our independent courts. When deciding what sentence to impose, courts must consider the circumstances of the case, including the culpability of the offender, the harm they caused, and any aggravating and mitigating factors.

Section 65 of Sentencing Act 2020 provides a statutory aggravating factor, that a court must ‘treat each previous conviction as an aggravating factor if (in the case of that conviction) the court considers that it can reasonably be so treated having regard’. Judges must consider the appropriate level of any sentence uplift justified by the factor, as part of considering the full circumstances of the case.

The Government is of course dedicated to ensuring that the harm caused by this form of offending is appropriately and proportionally reflected in the sentencing framework. Our manifesto committed to a review of sentencing to ensure the framework is up to date. The Independent Sentencing Review has been asked to specifically look at the sentencing of offences primarily committed against women and girls.