Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women\u2019s Aid, comments:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “This week, the Ministry of Justice announced a range of reforms to the criminal justice system, as well as much-needed funding for victims\u2019 services. For too long, survivors have been left to muddle through the justice system without adequate support, often without being believed, so these changes are welcome. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The announcement that\u00a0<\/span>\u00a3550 million will be invested in victim support services, to be spread over three years,<\/span>\u00a0will provide\u00a0some\u00a0respite to life-saving services, which\u00a0have\u00a0continued delivering\u00a0high-quality\u00a0care and support despite\u00a0a\u00a0funding crisis<\/span>. While we await further clarity on\u00a0the critical question\u00a0of\u00a0what proportion of the funding will be ring-fenced for domestic abuse and sexual violence services,\u00a0and\u00a0while we\u00a0would of course like to see further investment in the long-term,\u00a0this 2% uplift is\u00a0welcome given\u00a0the challenging economic context that we are currently in, whilst recognising that costs have increased for many services well\u00a0beyond\u00a0this.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Looking ahead and in the context of this\u00a0government\u2019s commitment to halve\u00a0violence against women and girls (VAWG)\u00a0in a decade, we\u00a0continue to\u00a0urge\u00a0that\u00a0\u00a0\u00a3280 million\u00a0be committed annually to support\u00a0these\u00a0community-based support services, which provide survivors with life-saving help, when they need it most.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This week, we also saw\u00a0a\u00a0number\u00a0of\u00a0changes introduced to tackle the backlog of\u00a0court\u00a0cases, which\u00a0is\u00a0having\u00a0a\u00a0detrimental\u00a0impact on survivors \u2013 causing\u00a0them to\u00a0drop\u00a0criminal\u00a0proceedings due to\u00a0the\u00a0damaging impact the delays have on\u00a0their mental\u00a0health.\u00a0A key\u00a0element of this week\u2019s proposal\u00a0is\u00a0the diversion\u00a0of\u00a0cases away from court and towards out of court resolutions.\u00a0We are\u00a0concerned that\u00a0the increased\u00a0responsibility of judicial discretion\u00a0and\u00a0on magistrates\u00a0in domestic abuse cases\u00a0could\u00a0mean\u00a0an\u00a0increased risk to\u00a0the safety of women and children\u00a0due to inconsistent\u00a0levels of\u00a0domestic abuse\u00a0training\u00a0across judges. Coercive\u00a0control is an insidious part\u00a0of domestic\u00a0abuse\u00a0and it is vital that\u00a0judges and\u00a0magistrates understand\u00a0its\u00a0complexity,\u00a0and the responsibility that they have towards survivors,\u00a0women\u00a0and children alike. We\u00a0urge\u00a0that\u00a0specialist domestic abuse\u00a0training be\u00a0provided to all\u00a0judges\u00a0and magistrates\u00a0to ensure that decisions\u00a0are\u00a0risk-assessed\u00a0and\u00a0survivor-focused.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We are pleased to see further reform, including reforms recommended by the Law Commission which centre the needs of survivors over those who commit heinous crimes against them, accepted by the government. We are pleased to see that it will be enshrined in law that where previous convictions evidencing domestic abuse exist, these can be used at trial for further domestic abuse related offences. We are also pleased to see vital measures introduced to restrict the use of \u2018bad character evidence\u2019 against rape victims in court. For too long, survivors of rape have been disbelieved, questioned and undermined, while conviction rates remained stubbornly low. These changes are vital if trust in the justice system is ever to be rebuilt.”<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Women’s Aid responds to new Ministry of Justice reforms Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women\u2019s Aid, comments:\u00a0 “This week, the Ministry of Justice announced a range of reforms to the criminal justice system, as well as much-needed funding for victims\u2019 services. For too long, survivors have been left to muddle through the justice system without […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1322,"featured_media":49151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","inline_featured_image":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2083,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-policy","category-news","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n