- ‘Restriction zones’ to lock offenders – not their victims – into specific areas
- Breaches, when boundaries are crossed, could result in prison recall
- Move part of Plan for Change to boost protection for victims and make our streets safer
Under plans outlined today (Friday 8 August), offenders will be pinned down to certain areas with tough monitoring supported by proven technology – with the possibility of time behind bars for those who breach restrictions.
This will provide an additional tool to protect victims from the most serious offenders. Whilst existing “exclusion zones” are a valuable tool to stop offenders from entering a location where their victim lives, new “restriction zones” go further and instead limit the movement of offenders, who are confined to an agreed area, allowing victims to travel anywhere else without fear of meeting their offender.
Probation Officers will conduct a detailed risk assessment and work hand-in-hand with victims on the creation of restriction zones, making sure zones prevent contact while giving survivors the maximum freedom to rebuild their lives.
Announcing the change after visiting charity Advance, which supports women and girls who have experienced trauma from domestic abuse to rebuild their lives in their communities, Minister for Victims and Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls Alex Davies-Jones said:
Through our Plan for Change, we’re putting victims first.
This move will strengthen safeguards for victims. I’ve heard firsthand how this innovative approach will give them the peace of mind they deserve and rebuild their lives without fear.
Wider reforms throughout the probation system will also see tens of thousands more offenders tagged – backed by a huge boost in funding of up to £700 million by 2028/29.
In addition, at least 1,300 new trainee probation officers will be brought in next year to increase capacity and new technology will lighten the administrative burden and free up time for workers to effectively supervise the most dangerous offenders and keep the public safe.
Diana Parkes CBE and Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE, who are co-founders of the Joanna Simpson Foundation, said:
For far too long, victims have had to reshape their lives to avoid their offenders. Exclusion zones have made victims feel trapped as though they are the ones serving a sentence, with the victim carrying the weight of someone else’s crime.
This announcement from the Ministry of Justice is the much-needed change that has long been called for and is a powerful step forward. By placing restrictions on offenders instead, this will now give survivors the freedom they deserve to live, move and heal without fear. It will also be more cost-effective for those monitoring the perpetuators as they will be locked in specific areas rather than having to monitor the exclusion zones where the victims live.
We are proud to have campaigned for this reform over the course of many years, including in our meeting with the Lord Chancellor and Victims Minister earlier this year, and truly grateful to the Ministry of Justice for listening, for believing in change and for putting survivors first.
In order to further protect victims and ensure they see justice done, there will be further changes to:
- Increase tagging for domestic perpetrators – enabling the closer monitoring of cowardly abusers to reassure victims and remove the onus from them to prove breaches have occurred.
- Identify perpetrators of domestic abuse at sentencing – requiring judges to flag domestic abuse at sentencing so prisons, probation and police can better identify and manage abusers.
- Expand Specialist Domestic Abuse Courts – bolstering support for victims and ensuring their abusers are properly supervised and rehabilitated.
- Bolster transparency for victims at sentencing – including the provision of free copies of judges’ sentencing remarks for victims of rape and other sexual offences, and ensuring they receive the information and support they need to navigate the criminal justice system.
This builds on action the government has already taken to meet its commitment to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, including:
- A National Centre for VAWG and Public Protection backed by £13.1 million to enable policing to better target these crimes.
- Raneem’s Law which embeds domestic abuse specialists in 999 control rooms in the first five police forces to improve the police response to domestic abuse.
- Nearly £20 million in funding for specialist VAWG services which support victims of abuse including a range of vital helplines.
- Introducing a new criminal offence for spiking and new spiking training for thousands of pub, club and bar staff to ensure they have the skills to support victims and prevent incidents.
- Launched new Domestic Abuse Protection Orders in select police forces and courts. These orders enable victims to obtain protection for as long as needed, cover all forms of domestic abuse and can impose tougher restrictions on perpetrators including electronic monitoring and mandating assessments for perpetrator programmes.
- New measures to tackle stalking, including giving police guidance on a victim’s right to know the identity of online stalkers for the first time and widening the use of Stalking Protection Orders.
- The roll out of The Drive Project across England and Wales which, backed by £53 million, will target high-harm, high-risk domestic abuse perpetrators – taking the responsibility for the abuse away from the victim and putting it firmly on the perpetrator where it belongs.
- Criminalising pornography that depicts acts of strangulation through the Crime and Policing Bill.
