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<p>There is no statutory offence of ‘domestic abuse’ and actions amounting to it could
be recorded under a number of offences such as Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH), Actual
Bodily Harm (ABH), Common Assault or sexual offences. Furthermore, within military
police crime-recording systems, the categorisation of whether an incident involves
‘domestic violence’ or not, is not a mandatory field, meaning that the figures provided
are indicative only.</p><p> </p><p>The first document provided gives figures for the
number of reported offences for each Service for the years 2015-2020 to date where
the incident has been categorised as involving domestic violence. The second document
provided gives figures for each Service for the years 2015-2020 to date, for the number
of GBH, ABH, and Common Assault offences. The noble Lord should note that in both
of the documents, the figures given are for reported offences – that is, to say an
allegation has been made. These figures do not relate to charges brought or court
convictions.</p><p> </p><p>An average time cannot be given regarding the Chain of
Command (CoC) reporting such incidents to the Service Police. Every case would require
examination to determine when it was reported to the Service Police and not every
investigation file may contain the date when an incident was originally reported to
the CoC. Therefore, we would not be able to provide a complete answer and what we
could provide could be provided only at disproportionate cost.</p><p> </p><p>However
where reported to the CoC, any incident of domestic abuse must be reported to the
Service Police no later than 24 hours after the incident has occurred. Further to
this, a referral to the Welfare Service must be made in any situation involving domestic
abuse or similar allegations.</p><p>Whilst there are no houses on the defence estate
dedicated specifically for survivors of domestic abuse, support is provided through
a suite of policies which seek to provide housing options for families in times of
estrangement.</p><p> </p><p>Short term accommodation for welfare or compassionate
reasons is administered by Service welfare associations. Tri-Service accommodation
policy requires the provision of welfare houses at each designated establishment,
scaled to reflect density of Service population. Unit welfare staff, in conjunction
with civilian police and local authorities assess whether utilisation of such are
in the best interests of safeguarding abuse survivors, and may provide alternative
accommodation (through local authority or charitable provision) if distance between
perpetrator and survivor is required.</p><p> </p><p>The MOD is currently reviewing
the tri-service policy on domestic abuse with the help of leading charity Hestia,
who sit alongside MOD on the Employer’s Initiative on Domestic Abuse. It is intended
that this policy apply to the whole force – civilians, contractors and the single
Services. The review will also focus on the availability of accommodation for survivors,
taking advice from the domestic abuse charity Standing Together. MOD intends to refresh
and re-launch the policy towards the end of 2020.</p><p> </p><p>The MOD continually
monitors whole force data on domestic abuse for prevalence and risk factors – this
has been of particular focus during the Covid-19 pandemic. This data is disseminated
and discussed within the MOD Domestic Abuse Stakeholder Forum the Domestic Abuse Working
Group (DAWG), which meets quarterly. The DAWG seeks advice and guidance from national
domestic abuse charities like Hestia, Aurora New Dawn and the Employer’s Initiative
on Domestic Abuse, resulting in continual policy improvement.</p><p> </p>
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