Extract from Wales Assembly questions to the Deputy Minister and Chief Whip - Feb 19

Leanne Wood AM: Since December 2015, coercive control has been an offence, and it is recognised now as a form of domestic abuse. Perpetrators, though, are particularly adept at covering their tracks, at gaslighting and evading justice—and I know this only too well from my experience of working with Welsh Women's Aid. As it is an offence, it requires police officers to be well trained, in order to ensure that those experiencing it can receive justice. Research conducted by Plaid Cymru last year showed that many police officers in Wales had not received that training, and those figures showed that our biggest police force, South Wales Police, had the lowest proportion of trained officers in Wales to deal with coercive control. In the absence of direct responsibility and powers over the criminal justice system, what more can be done to raise awareness of this crime, especially amongst the police, to ensure that perpetrators—all of them—are brought to justice?

Jane Hutt AM (Deputy Minister and Chief Whip): 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.