To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their position on the initiative taken by the Spanish presidency of the European Union for a system of European protection orders aimed at curbing violence against women. [HL1178]

The Government are broadly supportive of the idea of the European Protection Order (EPO) and the goal of providing protection for people exercising their free movement rights. Victims of domestic violence and other crimes should be able to move across the European Union with confidence that they will be protected, wherever they are, and we want to work with our European partners towards achieving this.

The UK does, however, have a three month period in which to decide whether to opt in to the proposal. During this period the Government will be following the parliamentary scrutiny process, including consultation with the scrutiny committees. We would not want to pre-empt this process and will be waiting for the committees’ views before coming to a decision on opt-in.