Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Committee

3 septembre 2026

The committee sets out the purpose of scrutinising the Domestic Abuse Act, clarifies ministerial portfolios, and examines how responsibilities, resourcing and coordination are shared across justice, home affairs, children’s services, housing and education, including the position of children as victims.

Domestic Abuse Act 2021 Committee

00:02 - 03:07

Intervenant 1

And can I welcome everyone to this session, which is on the Domestic Abuse Act, which was passed five years ago, and this is pre-legislative, post-legislative scrutiny, seeing how the legislation has worked. And it's not done with all pieces of legislation, but this piece of legislation has involved changes at many different levels, and so we've wanted to look at whether it was really effective and producing the aims that were sought. Now, let me just welcome the expert team of witnesses that I have here with me today. Sitting there to the left in red is Florence Eshalomi, MP. She's the Minister for Homelessness, Democracy, Communities and Faith, and was appointed Minister of State in July of this year.

Her responsibilities include community green spaces, social cohesion, faith, homelessness, and supported accommodation for domestic abuse victims. And clearly that's the key issue for us with yourself today. And you were the chair of the APPG, that's the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ending Homelessness, and so it's going to be a big challenge for you given the priority the Prime Minister is giving to this. But we're very concerned that the victims of domestic abuse are a high priority within that category. And then I'd like to welcome Alex, Alex Davies-Jones, who's the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Victims, Violence Against Women and Girls, and she's the International Justice at the Ministry of Justice.

Alex was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary in July as well, so a new and important arrival. She has had responsibilities including criminal law, victims, witnesses and vulnerabilities, rape and serious sexual offences, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, and miscarriages of justice. And that's going to keep you very busy, I'm sure, but we're glad to see you here today. And here we have also Josh MacAlister, who's the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. Sorry, it's Josh, forgive me.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families at the Department of Education. On the September, you were actually in post before you were given that role in September 25, and you were reappointed in July of this year. And you've really been giving priority to the position of children, and that's one of the issues that we want you to deal with here today. So I want to just to start off by saying, how are responsibilities for different provisions of the Act divided in practice? I mean, one of the problems we always have with something is that they fall between ministries, and how do you get that sort of cohesion?

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