Domestic violence victims to get two years to report abuse

As Dominic Raab says he wants to put the "fear of God" into abusers, victims of domestic violence will be given two years to report crimes.

The Justice Secretary says victims will no longer be denied justice simply because they failed to report their domestic assault to police within the current six-month limit. Writing in The Daily Telegraph, he said the current rule meant perpetrators evaded punishment in "too many cases", because by the time the victim had recovered and built up the courage to go to the police they were "timed out". Figures show an increase in the number who failed to meet a six-month deadline, from 1,451 in 2016-17 to 3,763 in 2020-21, and, according to data obtained from 30 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, 12,982 cases have ended over the last 5 years because of the six-month limit passing.

Mr Raab said the change will "leave the door to justice open to thousands of victims", and is part of a raft of measures to combat violence against women. "For many, the fear of being out alone after dark, or that they may be beaten in their own home, is a grim everyday reality. We must turn that situation around," he said. "I want us to give those women back the confidence to live life without having to look anxiously over their shoulder, and instil the fear of God into the minds of anyone who would contemplate threatening a woman or girl."

Mr Raab also cited new measures including longer sentences for sex crimes, league tables for rape prosecution rates, the nationwide rollout of pre-recorded evidence for rape victims, a police focus on perpetrators rather than victims' sexual pasts and a new victims' law.

He also announced that people who photograph breastfeeding women without permission will face up to two years in jail under a new criminal offence - taking non-consensual photographs or video recordings of breastfeeding mothers will be a specific voyeurism offence and cover "situations where the motive is to obtain sexual gratification, or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm". This follows a campaign for legal reforms by Labour MP Stella Creasy after she was photographed breastfeeding her baby on public transport. Similar legislation introduced by the Government in 2019 that criminalised "upskirting" has led to more than 30 prosecutions. "Every mother has the right to breastfeed without someone that they don't know, or don't want, trying to film or photograph them, for their own warped reasons," says Mr Raab. The changes will be enacted through amendments to the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill currently before Parliament.

Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, the total number of common assaults flagged as instances of domestic abuse increased by 71 per cent from 99,134 to 170,013. In the same time period, the number of these common assaults that resulted in charges being brought fell by 23 per cent. A person is guilty of common assault if they inflict violence on another person or make that person think they are about to be attacked. This is not limited to physically violent acts – threatening words or a raised fist could lead the victim to believe they are going to be attacked.

The domestic abuse commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, welcomed the reform: "I want to see increased prosecutions for domestic abuse, and hope to see that as these measures remove another barrier to bringing perpetrators to justice."

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper, who campaigned against the six-month limit, welcomed the move but said the Government needed to go further to reverse plummeting rape and domestic abuse conviction rates, saying: "Too many perpetrators are being let off, too many victims are being let down."

The Johnson Partnership

Nottingham Solicitors