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Select committee: Constitution Committee

Government response to the Domestic Abuse Bill report

Published 14 October 2020

Constitution Committee Domestic Abuse Bill Report on parliament.uk ↗

At a glance

The government's response

This document responds to 14th Report - Domestic Abuse Bill.

This is the government's response, published 14 October 2020.

Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.

The Government fully agrees that consultation and pre-legislative scrutiny strengthened the Bill, but does not accept that clauses 65 to 68 and Schedule 2 should be moved into separate criminal justice legislation.

  • On pre-legislative scrutiny, the Government "fully agrees" that the consultation and scrutiny of the draft Bill "significantly strengthened" the legislation.
  • On clause 65 (the "rough sex" defence), it believes the Bill is "an appropriate legislative vehicle" and does "not believe it would receive more extensive scrutiny in a criminal justice Bill".
  • On clauses 66 to 68 and Schedule 2 (extraterritorial jurisdiction), it recognises their wider application but does "not accept" that inclusion in this Bill has diminished scrutiny.
  • It says limiting these measures to domestic abuse would "fall short" of its Istanbul Convention obligations and "delay the point at which the Convention can be ratified".

Read the government's response ↗ Report an error

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