Domestic Abuse: Suicide
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions she has had with relevant stakeholders on reviewing sentencing for instances of coercive control that leads to the suicide of the victim.
Answered by Sir Nicholas Dakin
Tackling this issue is a core part of this Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade, and our VAWG strategy, which will be published in the summer, will look at how we can better understand, learn from and prevent future deaths linked to domestic abuse.
The Lord Chancellor has recently asked the Law Commission to undertake a review of homicide law and sentencing, and the use of, and obstacles to, manslaughter charges where a person may be driven to suicide by abuse, and sentencing in these cases, is in scope of this review. The Government has engaged with the families and stakeholders campaigning on this issue.
The Law Commission review will be open, inclusive and evidence-based and will include consultation with judges, legal and criminal justice practitioners, victims’ groups and representatives, parliamentarians, academics, and third-sector organisations.
The Government is also working to develop the evidence base on suicides that follow domestic abuse, including through funding research by the National Police Chiefs' Council's Domestic Homicides and Suspected Victim Suicides Project, which captures information on suicides with a known history of domestic abuse from all 43 police forces.
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