We have published the Council’s response to an independent research review of the guideline for sentencing offences committed within a context of domestic abuse.

The research review, conducted by Nottingham Trent University, found that there was generally a high level of satisfaction among sentencers with how the guideline was used in practice, but we have identified some areas where minor changes would improve the clarity and accessibility of the guideline and help the courts better reflect the seriousness of domestic abuse when it is present in other offences:

• changing the name of the guideline to ‘Domestic abuse: overarching principles’
• linking the guideline to guidance on compensation and restraining orders
• rewording the ‘domestic context’ aggravating factor to include the word ‘abuse’, and
• adding ‘domestic abuse context’ as an aggravating factor to another 20 offence specific guidelines