Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to to minimise the potential impact of court proceedings on domestic violence victims by (a) aligning the (i) burdens of proof, (ii) legal standards and (iii) duties of lawyers in the family and criminal courts and (b) improving the admissibility of evidence between the family and criminal courts.

This Government is committed to doing everything it can to halve Violence Against Women and Girls within a decade. We recognise why it is important that victims of domestic abuse can have confidence that their case will be heard in court as soon as possible, and that they have support to help them navigate the justice system.

There are many procedural and systemic differences between family and criminal courts which are necessary and important given the very different contexts of those proceedings and the issues they are dealing with. Despite this, victims of domestic abuse are entitled to many of the same protections across our family, civil and criminal courts, including automatic eligibility for special measures, which can include giving evidence behind a screen or via a video link, and protection from being directly cross-examined by their perpetrators. In addition, our recently introduced Domestic Abuse Protection Order, is the first ever cross-jurisdictional order to be made available, on civil standard of proof, across family, civil and criminal courts.

While the Government is pursuing a range of initiatives and longer-term reforms across both criminal and family courts, aimed at improving outcomes for victims of domestic abuse, no steps are being taken to align different standard of proof, admissibility of evidence or procedure between these different jurisdictions.