Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Definition of Domestic Abuse Used In Relation to Eligibility for Civil Legal Aid — 31 Oct 2011 at 22:00

The majority of MPs voted against explicitly including threats plus financial and emotional abuse in the definition of domestic abuse used in relation to the award of civil legal aid to domestic abuse victims.

MPs were considering the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill^[1]. The amendment rejected in this vote was:

• Amendment 92, page 103, line 35, leave out ‘physical or mental abuse’ and insert ‘any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (whether physical, mental, financial or emotional)

This would have taken effect on Schedule 1, clause 10(9) of the Bill which defines victims of domestic violence for the purposes of eligibility for civil legal aid.

The relevant section remained, following the rejection of the amendment, stating:

• In this paragraph “abuse” means physical or mental abuse, including—
• (a) sexual abuse, and
• (b) abuse in the form of violence, neglect, maltreatment and exploitation;

The effect of the amendment would have been to explicitly expand the definition of abuse to include threats, financial and emotional abuse.

=

• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill (now an Act)

Debate in Parliament | Source |