Protections in the justice system for women and girls

Background

Evidence shows pregnancy can be a period of heightened vulnerability, with domestic abuse sometimes beginning or escalating at this time. Abuse during pregnancy can cause serious physical and psychological harm to women and can also harm the unborn child.

Context to the issue that is being raised

There is a history of parliamentary consideration of this important area through the Public Petitions Committee, which highlighted evidence that:

• domestic abuse can begin or intensify during pregnancy
• the current system does not consistently recognise or reflect the specific trauma of pregnancy loss caused by violence or coercive control

While existing offences already allow for severe sentences, we recognise the seriousness of the issues raised. As such, we have indicated to Parliament an openness to considering whether further measures could improve consistency, transparency and confidence in sentencing.

Serious crimes such as assault exist largely at common law, giving courts wide sentencing powers. Pregnancy‑related harm is currently recognised indirectly through how prosecutors frame charges and through judicial sentencing discretion, rather than through a dedicated statutory offence or aggravator that explicitly marks pregnancy loss as a specific, distinct harm. Some stakeholders argue that this can lead to inconsistent recognition of pregnancy‑related harm.

Our view

Our aim is to ensure the law consistently recognises this increased risk and harm, and that sentencing decisions are transparent and clearly explained to victims.

We are seeking views on introducing a new statutory aggravation where a domestic abuse offence is committed against a pregnant woman by a partner or ex‑partner. 

An aggravation does not define new criminal conduct. Instead, it highlights a specific feature of the offending — for example, that the behaviour targeted a particular person or group, or occurred in circumstances that justify considering treating the offence as more serious.

We believe a statutory aggravation is the most effective approach in responding to the harm caused by offending behaviour against pregnant women. This is because it:

• recognises the seriousness of domestic abuse during pregnancy, whether or not a miscarriage occurs
• focuses on the heightened risk and harm during pregnancy, rather than a specific medical outcome that may not always be possible to determine, creating barriers to justice
• avoids placing additional demands on victims to provide highly personal medical detail
• requires courts to explain openly how pregnancy was considered when sentencing, increasing transparency for victims
• allows better data collection to understand the scale of domestic abuse during pregnancy and support future policymaking

You can read more about how the proposed statutory aggravation would work in practice below.