To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that more people who are responsible for inflicting domestic abuse are dealt with by the criminal justice system. [HL166]

The Government's national domestic violence delivery plan sets out our framework for tackling domestic violence. One of our objectives is to improve the justice system's response to domestic violence by supporting victims and managing perpetrators. Activities which support the delivery of this objective include:

updating domestic violence training for the police and Crown Prosecution Service to ensure a consistent and appropriate response to victims;

rolling out to all police forces the new risk assessment checklist which covers domestic violence, stalking and harassment and “honour”-based violence; and

increasing the number of the specialist domestic violence court systems to provide a multi-agency approach to supporting victims thereby bringing more offenders to justice.

We also recently published our government strategy Together We Can End Violence Against Women and Girls, which includes a section on the response of the criminal justice system. One of the priorities is to bring more offenders to justice by improving reporting and conviction rates. We are also currently considering a number of proposals submitted by Chief Constable Brian Moore which address perpetrators of violence towards women and girls and will provide a full response in the new year.