Coercive Control

Part of Questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip – in the Senedd at 2:37 pm on 19 February 2019.

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Photo of Jane Hutt Jane Hutt Labour 2:37, 19 February 2019

I thank Leanne Wood for that important question. Interestingly, yesterday, I was at the policing board, chaired by the First Minister, where chief constables and police and crime commissioners were talking about crime in their communities. And, in fact, domestic abuse and violence against women were raised by chief constables as an issue that they were very concerned about, in terms of their priorities. It is vital that the police force do undertake this training, which is now available under our national training framework, but also that we look at ways in which we can ensure that people understand that coercive control is a crime—as you say, a criminal offence—in England and Wales, a specific criminal offence as part of the Serious Crime Act 2015. And, in fact, there were over 9,000 offences of coercive control recorded by the police in 2018. So we have to ensure—and I saw that yesterday at the policing board—that the police are at the forefront of our campaign against coercive control.