Nigel Evans, MP for the Ribble Valley, has welcomed the Domestic Abuse Bill that was announced today by the government.
After consulting the views of victims, support organisations and frontline professionals, the Domestic Abuse Bill will promote awareness, provide support for victims and improve services.
Commenting, Nigel Evans said:
“Domestic abuse is a forbidding and painful crime that can affect anyone, leaving physical and emotional scars that stay with people for a lifetime. It affects 6% of all adults and has huge economic and social costs”.
“I am delighted that the Government is committed to transforming and strengthening its approach to domestic abuse. The objectives laid out in this bill will address domestic abuse right through from prevention to rehabilitation”.
The bill has 4 main objectives; to raise public and professional awareness; to protect and support victims; to transform the justice process and perpetrator response; to drive consistency and better performance in the response to domestic abuse.
The government’s milestone bill also introduces the first ever statutory definition of domestic abuse, which also includes economic abuse and manipulative abuse that isn’t physical.