Commissioner warns ministers over domestic abuse

The domestic abuse commissioner for England and Wales has said she is “deeply concerned” that government plans to tackle abuse could go on failing victims.

The comments from Dame Nicole Jacobs come after ministers declined to fully accept all of her recommendations for reform in a review published in January.

She added that a “comprehensive strategy”, backed by more funding, was required to improve victims’ experience of the justice system.

The government said it had already taken a “series of bold measures” to strengthen police responses and protect victims.

Further plans would be announced as part of a government strategy on violence against women and girls, a Home Office source added.

Dame Nicole’s January review criticised “systemic failures” in the justice system, arguing that a lack of funding and low conviction rates had left victims’ confidence in police and the courts “at an all-time low”.

It made twelve recommendations for improving the system, warning that a flagship Labour pledge to halve levels of violence against women and girls over a decade would otherwise “fall flat”.

In a response published on Wednesday, the government said it would accept two of her suggestions, to “elevate the status” of domestic abuse within policing, and to strengthen misconduct rules for officers accused of abusing women.

But it rejected a recommendation for new legislation to make it easier for victims who use violence against their abuser, or who are forced into offending, to claim they were acting in self-defence.

It said self-defence could already be used as a partial or full defence by domestic abuse victims accused of a range of crimes, including in cases where they are accused of murdering their abuser.

It added that the Law Commission, which advises ministers on legal reforms, was looking into the issue as part of a wider review.

The outcome of this would inform “consideration of a general defence for all offences, but the government has no immediate plans to legislate to create a domestic abuse defence,” it said.

Elsewhere, the government partially accepted nine of Dame Nicole’s other recommendations, including for better training for police, judges and probation officers, and for investment to improve data sharing between different criminal justice agencies.

In its responses, the Home Office and Ministry of Justice (MoJ) pointed to a range of existing training schemes, guidance documents and forthcoming powers to deliver reforms in the various suggested areas for improvement.

However, Dame Nicole said “re-badging existing programmes as new” would not improve the system, and warned against “cherry-picking elements from my report”.

She added that existing training schemes were “not enough,” while ministers had failed to provide a “concrete assurance” of better funding to improve how information on offending was gathered.

“I want to be clear that right now we have a criminal justice system that is failing victims of domestic abuse,” she said.

“Without a comprehensive strategy on how the government will deliver on these recommendations, backed up by adequate funding, I am deeply concerned that this will only continue”.

The Home Office and MoJ said they would consider “how best to support victims” as part of their response to the government’s ongoing spending review, which will set departments’ day-to-day spending between 2026 and 2029.