New clause 17 - Register of Orders
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Mr Paul Goggins (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Wythenshawe and Sale East, Labour)
I hope that my brief remarks will reassure the hon. Members for North Dorset and for Somerton and Frome and persuade them that the new clause is not needed.
When the Bill was in the other place, my noble Friend Baroness Scotland explained that the Government are already working to create a register of orders. The register's purpose is to ensure the proper enforcement of orders, and it does not require primary legislation. The register will deal with a problem that was raised in response to the ''Safety and Justice'' consultation paper on domestic violence—if someone protected by an order travels to a different area and the respondent pursues them and breaches the order, the police in that area will not be aware of the existence of the order or its terms. A central register would give all police forces access to information about orders and the ability to enforce them wherever a breach occurs.
Our current plan is to create a database that is linked to the police national computer, which would fulfil the new clause's objective of ensuring that information on the register is readily available to all police officers. We have had discussions with the Police Information Technology Organisation, which we expect to submit an outline business case and specifications, I hope by the end of August or at the latest early September.
In respect of subsection (2) of the new clause, rules of court already provide for courts to send copies of non-molestation and occupation orders to the police, and we intend to consider revising the rules to clarify those obligations. Using primary legislation to place the courts under a statutory obligation to provide such documents is therefore unnecessary. The question should not be whether the proposal is included in the Bill; what really matters is that it is put into practice—something that the Government firmly intend to do as a matter of priority. I hope that the Committee is reassured by what I have said.