Domestic Violence Offender Register

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House – in the Senedd at 2:28 pm on 24 January 2018.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 2:28, 24 January 2018

That's a very good question. There is no specific register for stalkers and domestic violence perpetrators in Wales at the moment, as the Member is well aware. The domestic violence disclosure scheme, also known as Clare's law, allows the police to share information about a person's previous violent offending where this may help prevent domestic violence or prevent someone from being involved in that sort of situation. We've got some really good services and processes in place in Wales, and we continue to work to raise service standards for victims and for survivors. But we are also looking at the Welsh Government's Strengthening Leadership series for public services, and we've published an awareness raising video, What is stalking?, which highlights actions to minimise risk and to support and protect staff and clients with whom an organisation is working.

There's a number of other things that we can also look at. I very recently, in the last week or so, visited the MASH in Cardiff central police station, which is the  multi-agency safeguarding hub—an arrangement between all of the agencies working across Cardiff and south-east Wales, looking to share information and data on exactly this. I had a really good meeting there about how that's worked and how effective it's been and how it's reduced offending, and it's helped survivors as well. And the whole agency set-up there is—if you haven't managed to visit it, I highly recommend it, and for anyone else in the Chamber who hasn't seen it. We had a long and interesting discussion about how we might roll some of that out across the rest of Wales, which will be ongoing, and, as I said, I have asked officials for advice as to where we are in terms of both legislative competence and the efficacy of introducing such a register.