New court-imposed civil orders to protect victims of domestic abuse will be piloted in Wales, Greater Manchester and London, the government has revealed.

Last year the Home Office announced that domestic abuse complainants would be able to obtain legal advice through new protection orders and notices. Yesterday, it was confirmed that the new civil orders will be piloted in Gwent, Greater Manchester and the London boroughs of Croydon, Bromley and Sutton.

Courts will be able to impose requirements such as attendance on behaviour change programmes, alongside electronic monitoring, and offenders will have to notify the police of name and address changes. Breaching the order will be a criminal offence.

The Home Office told the Gazette that decisions on start dates and duration of the pilot have not yet been made.

The civil orders are part of several measures announced by the government yesterday to protect women and girls.

‘The law will be changed so that the most dangerous domestic abusers will be watched more closely,’ the government said. ‘For the first time, controlling or coercive behaviour will be put on a par with physical violence, which will mean offenders sentenced to a year or more imprisonment or a suspended sentence will automatically be actively managed by the police, prison and probation services under multi-agency public protection arrangements.

'A range of agencies will have a legal duty to cooperate to manage the risks posed by these dangerous offenders. This will make it easier to deliver a joined-up approach to protect the public.’

Police forces will be required to treat violence against women and girls as a national threat and will be expected to proactively identify ‘the most dangerous domestic abusers to prevent them from committing further crimes’. The Home Office will help develop a risk assessment tool ‘so that police forces can quickly identify domestic abusers most likely to commit the greatest harm - even where they have no conviction - and stop them in their tracks’, the government said.

 

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