Clause 1 - Breach of non-molestation order to be a criminal offence
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
9:10 am
Mrs Marion Roe (Broxbourne, Conservative)
With this it will be convenient to discuss the following:
Amendment No. 1, in clause 1, page 1, line 8, leave out 'does anything' and insert
'commits an act of domestic violence.'.
New clause 3—Definition of Domestic Violence—
Before section 30 in Part 4 of the Family Law Act 1996 (c.27) (Family Homes and Domestic Violence) insert—
''30A Definition of domestic violence
(1) In this Act, and in any other family proceedings, 'domestic violence', in relation to any person, means violence against that person by any other person with whom that person is, or has been, in a domestic relationship.
(2) In this section, 'violence' means
(a) physical abuse;
(b) sexual abuse;
(c) psychological or emotional abuse, including, but not limited to,
(i) intimidation;
(ii) harassment;
(iii) damage to property;
(iv) threats of physical abuse, sexual abuse or psychological abuse;
(v) in relation to a child, abuse of the kind set out in subsection (3) of this section.
(3) Without limiting subsection (2)(c) of this section, a person psychologically abuses a child if that person
(a) causes or allows the child to see or hear the physical, sexual or psychological abuse of a person with whom the child has a domestic relationship; or
(b) puts that child, or allows the child to be put, at real risk of seeing or hearing that abuse occurring; but the person who suffers that abuse is not regarded, for the purposes of this subsection, as having caused or allowed the child to see or hear the abuse, or, as the case may be, as having put the child, or allowed the child to be put, at risk of seeing or hearing the abuse.
(4) Without limiting subsection (2) of this section;.
(a) a single act may amount to abuse for the purposes of that subsection;
(b) a number of acts that form part of a pattern of behaviour may amount to abuse for that purpose, even though some or all of those acts, when viewed in isolation, may appear to be minor or trivial.
(5) Behaviour may be psychological abuse for the purposes of subsection (2)(c) of this section which does not involve actual or threatened physical or sexual abuse.''.'.
New clause 9—Definition of Domestic Relationship—
'(1) For the purposes of this Act, a person is in a domestic relationship with another person, if the person—
(a) is a partner of the other person; or
(b) is a family member of the other person; or
(c) ordinarily shares a household with the other person; or
(d) has a close personal relationship with the other person.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(c) of this section, a person is not regarded as sharing a household with another person by reason only of the fact that—
(a) the person has—
(i) a landlord-tenant relationship; or
(ii) an employer-employee relationship; or
(iii) an employee-employee relationship—
with that other person; and
(b) they occupy a common dwellinghouse (whether or not other people also occupy that dwellinghouse).
(3) For the purposes of subsection (1)(d) of this section, a person is not regarded as having a close personal relationship with another person by reason only of the fact that the person has—
(a) an employer-employee relationship; or
(b) an employee-employee relationship—
with that other person.
(4) With limiting the matters to which a Court may have regard in determining, for the purposes of subsection (1)(d) of this section, whether a person has a close personal relationship with another person, the Court must have regard to—
(a) the nature and intensity of the relationship, and in particular—
(i) the amount of time the persons spend together;
(ii) the place or places where that time is ordinarily spent;
(iii) the manner in which that time is ordinarily spent;—
but it is not necessary for there to be a sexual relationship between the persons:
(b) the duration of the relationship.'.