To ask the Minister of Justice to detail any engagement her Department has had with women’s support organisations in the last five years to assess the practical impact of legal aid eligibility rules on access to justice for domestic abuse victims.

During the development and passage through the Assembly of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 (DACPA), Department of Justice officials consulted with and met a range of women’s support organisations, and other organisations involved in supporting people who have experienced domestic abuse. This engagement helped to shape the provisions of that Act, and specifically with reference to legal aid, resulted in the adoption of provision for a waiver of financial eligibility limits for legal aid in certain circumstances for victims of domestic abuse.

Since then, my Department has commissioned two pieces of research aimed specifically at understanding the experiences of victims of domestic abuse with the justice system in general and with legal aid in particular. These are the research commissioned to inform the Department’s statutory report on legal aid and domestic abuse, as required by s. 29 of DACPA, and a further review and rapid priority setting exercise conducted by researchers at Ulster University, to inform the Department’s own foundational review of civil legal services, which itself involved direct engagement with organisations supporting victims of domestic abuse.

As a result of this engagement, the Department has a strong evidence base that clearly indicates a need for additional support for domestic abuse victims. These additional support measures will be advanced as part of the implementation of the Enabling Access to Justice Delivery Plan, and will be developed in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders.