This grand plan to help domestic abuse victims looks set to fail | Isabel Hardman

How is it that the government’s ‘flagship policy’, one of Theresa May’s personal missions, is treated so casually by its own departments?

As Brexit grabs the headlines, what is happening to the government’s domestic agenda? Even its flagship policies seem to get little attention. “Flagship”, of course, is a hackneyed term, and often seems to denote a curse as much as a government priority. Universal credit, for instance, is a “flagship” social reform introduced by the Conservatives that seems more like the Titanic. And in the next few weeks another “flagship” will set sail, in the form of the domestic abuse bill, which also looks as though it could be holed below the waterline.

Home Office ministers are impressively motivated about using the legislation to save lives. This bill will introduce the first statutory definition of domestic abuse, and will include nonphysical abuse, such as emotional and financial. It will also create a domestic abuse commissioner, who will hold central and local government to account. The real issue is with the way government works as a whole or, in the case of domestic abuse, how it isn’t working.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2EGMT4i