Domestic Abuse Bill — Before Clause 69 — Monitoring of Serial and Serious Harm Domestic Abuse and Stalking Perpetrators under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements — 26 Apr 2021 at 22:19

The majority of MPs voted against tougher arrangements to monitor those who have committed serial, or high risk, domestic abuse or stalking crimes.

MPs were considering the Domestic Abuse Bill.^[1][2]

The motion supported by a majority of MPs in this vote was:

• That this House disagrees with Lords amendments 42D, 42E and 42F

Lords amendment 42D^[3] began:

• Insert the following new Clause—
• “Monitoring of serial and serious harm domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements
• (1) The Criminal Justice Act 2003 is amended as follows. (2) In section 325 (arrangements for assessing etc risk posed by certain offenders)—
• (a) in subsection (1), after ““relevant sexual or violent offender” has the meaning given by section 327;” insert ““relevant domestic abuse or stalking perpetrator” has the meaning given in section 327ZA;”;
• (b) in subsection (2), after paragraph (a) insert—
• “(aa) relevant domestic abuse or stalking perpetrators,”.
• (3) After section 327 (section 325: interpretation) insert—
• “327ZA Section 325: interpretation of relevant domestic abuse or stalking perpetrator
• (1) For the purposes of section 325, a person (“P”) is a “relevant domestic abuse or stalking perpetrator” if P has been convicted of a specified offence and meets either the condition in subsection (2)(a) or the condition in subsection (2)(b).
• (2) For the purposes of subsection (1), the conditions are—
• (a) P is a relevant serial offender; or
• (b) a risk of serious harm assessment has identified P as presenting a high or very high risk of serious harm.
• ...

The explanatory notes to the Lords amendments^[4] which described the effect of the proposal when it was called Amendment 42 stated:

• "Lords Amendment 42 would amends[sic] the Criminal Justice Act 2003, which provides for the establishment of Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements ("MAPPA"), to make arrangements for serial domestic abuse or stalking perpetrators to be registered on VISOR (the Dangerous Persons Database) and be subjected to supervision, monitoring and management through MAPPA."

Lords amendment 42E^[3] stated:

• In Clause 75, page 59, line 8, after “section” insert “(Identification, monitoring and management of serial domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators),”

This would have enabled "transitional or saving" regulations to be made in connection with the section.

Lords amendment 42F^[3] stated:

• In Clause 79, page 60, line 32, at end insert— “( ) section (Identification, monitoring and management of serial domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators);”

This would have ensured the clause became operative (commenced) when the law came into force.

This vote followed a previous vote just eleven days before on substantially the same matter.

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• [1] Parliament's webpage on the Domestic Abuse Bill, Parliament.uk
• [2] Explanatory notes to the Domestic Abuse Bill as introduced in the House of Commons on 3 March 2020, Parliament.uk
• [3] Lords amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill, 26 April 2021, Parliament.uk
• [4] Explanatory notes to the Lords amendments to the Domestic Abuse Bill as brought from the House of Commons on 7 July 2020, notes dated 25 March 2021, Parliament.uk

Debate in Parliament |