Dear John,

In England and Wales, there are no specific offences for domestic abuse.

This has to change.

Many domestic abusers are convicted of general offences such as ‘common assault’ or ‘Actual Bodily Harm’ (ABH). As a result, many are eligible for the government’s prison early release scheme — and some are being released early.

This is putting domestic abuse survivors at risk — so I’m campaigning to fix it.

That’s why I’ve tabled a new bill that would create a new, specific set of domestic abuse aggravated offences.

If passed, my bill would mean that, for example, a domestic abuser who would have previously been charged with common assault would now be charged with domestic abuse-aggravated common assault.

With this change, domestic abusers’ convictions would reflect the nature and context of their crimes. And we would lay the groundwork to close the loophole that sees some released early under the Government’s SDS40 scheme.

Today, I joined Elizabeth Hudson to talk about my campaign on Good Morning Britain. Elizabeth’s ex-husband was jailed after he assaulted her and held a knife to her throat. But since he was convicted of ABH, Elizabeth has been notified that he could be released early.