Electronically tagging domestic abusers who are subject to restraining orders would not go far enough to protect victims, campaigners have warned.
The tagging proposal is part of a wide-ranging consultation on measures to be included in the government’s draft domestic abuse bill launched by Theresa May last month.
As part of its response to the consultation, the Victims’ Rights Campaign, along with Plaid Cymru, have suggested fitting perpetrators with satellite trackers, which would alert their victims if they were nearby, as an alternative to tagging. If risk was deemed to be high, the police could also be automatically alerted.
Harry Fletcher, director of the Victims’ Rights Campaign, said: “Our proposals are about improving safety and public confidence, and allowing victims of domestic abuse and stalking to live their lives without fear.
“Manufacturers have told us that they could develop these simple devices and it is important that the government takes these ideas on board and gives them serious consideration.”
Safety had to take priority over cost, he added. “Indeed, if safety was paramount it would reduce health costs.”
Under the government’s proposals, offenders would wear a device that transmitted a signal to a call centre, which in turn would register a breach if the device was tampered with, or offenders left their home.
“The evidence is overwhelming that tagging and house arrests have no impact on crime,” Fletcher added. “In fact, they could make it worse and put women in real danger of further abuse if the perpetrator is living with the victim.”
In addition to satellite trackers, Plaid Cymru and the Victims’ Rights Campaign, who successfully lobbied to create a new offence of coercive control in 2015, have also called for a domestic violence offender register to be introduced.
They also want improved data collection on instances of domestic abuse and for perpetrators released from prison to undertake preventive programmes as a condition of parole.
Plaid Cymru’s justice and home affairs spokeswoman, Liz Saville Roberts, said: “We know that manufacturers could develop simple devices based on transmitters and receivers that could provide a vital extra layer of security for victims and genuinely reduce the incidents of reoffending by convicted stalkers and abusers.
“A victim would carry a receiver and be alerted if their abuser were to enter a court-imposed exclusion zone, with the police also receiving an alert in high-risk incidences.
“Above all, it would give the victim an increased sense of safety and confidence – something that is taken for granted by most of us but is severely lacking amongst some victims of abuse.”
Other proposals put out to consultation include banning domestic abuse suspects from contacting their victims, drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
The tagging would come under a new domestic abuse protection civil order, breaches of which would be punishable as a criminal offence. Ministers say the civil orders are designed as an early intervention measure to shield victims from further abuse from unconvicted suspects.
The bill would include a new statutory definition of abuse that for the first time recognises economic abuse. This would include forcing someone to take out loans, withholding access to wages or bank accounts, food, clothing or transport.
The government consultation paper also includes proposals to create a domestic abuse commissioner, tougher sentences for domestic abuse cases involving children, and special measures for victims in court including testifying behind screens or by video link so they do not have contact with their abusers.