I thank the Member for the question. It highlights a very grave injustice that victims of domestic violence in particular face. As her question recognises, thousands of women find themselves in family courts representing themselves in person against their own abusers. That is not something that is permitted any longer in the criminal courts, but it still remains a very real experience for women in the family courts. That is because of the withdrawal of legal aid, and although there have been some concessions by the UK Government at the end of last year, they are nowhere near adequate to tackle the scale of the issue.

As she will know, in order to qualify for legal aid at all, the assets, which may be under the control of the abuser, or even their income, can be taken into account in calculating the financial thresholds, which is obviously not acceptable. The former Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice in January of last year, highlighting the need to improve practices within the family court in cases involving victims of domestic abuse and violence, and the Government has written to the UK Government on a number of occasions, challenging its approach to legal aid, and the cuts and the impact of those cuts in Wales, and the Welsh Government takes every opportunity to express its concern on this vital issue of justice and social justice to the Ministry of Justice in the UK Government.