What steps the Government are taking to provide support to women in the criminal justice system who have been victims of domestic violence and abuse.

Tackling violence against women and girls is a priority for the Government, and specifically for me, as I have responsibility for women in the criminal justice system. The National Offender Management Service, in conjunction with Women’s Aid, has published the framework to support women offenders who have experienced domestic and sexual violence. It contains guidance for commissioners and links to resources for practitioners. Women’s Aid and the National Offender Management Service are also training prison and probation staff to pilot the Power to Change programme, which aims to help women prisoners who want to leave a violent relationship.

With the closure of courts across the land, will the Minister tell us what steps are being taken to guarantee that domestic abuse courts will remain in place?

We continue to examine the provision of court services across the country and there is an agenda to try to deliver justice much closer to neighbourhoods. Of course, dealing with domestic violence is an important part of addressing a particularly horrible crime at a community level. I have seen for myself the work done by the probation trusts, and that will go hand in hand with what needs to be done with the courts as well.

The House will be aware of the deeply disturbing cases where women have been stalked for many years by their ex-partners and have not been properly protected by the criminal justice system. Two months ago, I raised my concern and expressed the view that stalking should be made a separate criminal offence in order to provide greater protection for women. Labour has tabled an amendment to the Protection of Freedoms Bill in the House of Lords to do exactly that. Will the Government support us in our proposals to make stalking a separate offence and vote for those proposals in the Lords?

Obviously we have seen the proposals coming from the Opposition. We need to look at the evidence on how the existing legislation has or has not been used effectively and assess whether further work could be done on using existing harassment legislation properly. We are looking at the proposed amendment; during the course of the debate, we will come forward with a proper assessment and answer to it.