Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the reply by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 25 November 2014 (HC Deb, col 772) and the Written Answer by Lord Bates on 19 December 2014 (HL3457), when the National Oversight Group chaired by the Home Secretary, regarding the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme, known as Clare's Law, will report; and how the report will be publicised.

Following the publication of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary’s (HMIC’s) review on the police response to domestic abuse, the Home Secretary is driving a package of measures to improve the police response to victims of this terrible crime. The Home Secretary has established a national oversight group, which she is chairing, to monitor and drive activity against the recommendations of HMIC’s review.

The first update of the Group’s activities to date was published on the Gov.uk website in January and is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-oversight-group-on-domestic-violence-report . Further updates will be published in due course.

The Government is committed to supporting the police in tackling domestic violence and abuse, to bring offenders to justice and to ensure victims have the support they need to rebuild their lives. Separate to the work of the National Oversight Group on Domestic Abuse, we are also committed to reviewing this year how Domestic Violence Protection Orders and the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme have been rolled out across England and Wales since March 2014. This will be published in the Violence Against Women and Girls report, which will be published ahead of the General Election.