Debate contribution: Protecting Victims of Coercive Control

Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on 5 May 2026.

MLA

Ms Claire Sugden

Party at the time

Independent

Date

5 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Protecting Victims of Coercive Control

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5525240

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support the motion and the amendment. Coercive control is one of the most damaging forms of abuse because it is not always visible. It is not one incident; it is a pattern. It is persistent, and it strips a person of their independence, confidence and, over time, their sense of reality. That is why the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021 mattered so much. It recognised that abuse is not just physical; it can be psychological, emotional, financial and controlling. That was a significant and important shift in how we understand domestic abuse in Northern Ireland. However, legislation on its own does not protect people from abuse in its entirety. Socially, we need to see it, understand it and protect against it. The motion is right to highlight that many of the protections in the Act are still only partially implemented and that victims continue to face real barriers when trying to access justice, and we do see that —.

Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you. I appreciate the Minister's point, but that is what we are seeing in practice, and I suppose that it is due to the funding reality. We have to be mindful of the budgets and how we use them so that those things can be more consistent and made accessible to victims in particular. The Government need to be a victim-centred Government, and part of what the Minister highlights is critical to that. One of the most concerning areas is the family court. It is an issue that comes up regularly in my constituency office. Even I am shocked at how often it is raised with me. For many victims, abuse does not end when a relationship ends — it changes form. Court proceedings can become another tool: repeated application delays, attempts to undermine credibility, using contact proceedings to maintain control. What should be a process to resolve issues becomes a continuation of the abuse itself, and that cannot be allowed to happen. If we recognise coercive control in law, we have to recognise it wherever it happens, including in our courts. We cannot have one part of the justice system acknowledging coercive control while another part inadvertently enables it. Access to legal aid is central to that because a victim without representation, facing someone who has already controlled and intimidated them, is not on an equal footing, and we cannot pretend that they are. Also, we need to acknowledge the abuse of legal aid, and how it is used to coercively control people through the courts. If we want victims to come forward and to leave abusive relationships, the system that they enter has to be one that protects them not exhausts them, and the system is exhausting, with the delays and the challenges that they face in those rooms. The system should be there for victims to get justice, but, in many cases, it just discourages them. Coercive control is not just a justice issue. It is a societal issue; a trauma issue. What happens in the home does not stay in the home. Children who grow up in environments where coercive control or violence is present do not leave that experience behind. It becomes part of their development and shapes how they see relationships, respond to conflict and how they cope. Although we talk a lot about mental health, addiction and offending behaviour, we do not always join those dots. A significant proportion of those issues can be traced back to adverse childhood experiences, and domestic abuse is one of the most significant of those experiences. We see the consequences across the health service, social services and justice system, and, very often, in our prisons. I used to describe — I still do — the Justice Department as the failure Department. That is no disrespect to the current Minister and how she is conducting it. It is a recognition that if every other Department is failing people, those people often end up in the justice system. If we are serious about tackling those issues, we have to be serious about tackling the root cause of domestic abuse, and that requires a more strategic approach than we currently take.

Too often we are responding to the consequences rather than preventing the cause. We are managing the crisis, rather than reducing it. We are, in effect, trying to keep a lid on a problem, rather than dealing with what is driving it. It is not sustainable. Breaking the cycle of trauma requires early intervention, proper support for victims and systems that understand the impact of abuse, rather than simply processing cases. That is where a trauma-informed approach matters, not as a buzzword, but as a way of shaping how our services respond to people when they have experienced abuse.

I recognise the points that are made in the amendment: there are lessons in past failures, and we should always be willing to learn from them. However, the core issue before us is straightforward. We have recognised coercive control in law. We now need to ensure that that recognition is reflected in practice. That means commencing the outstanding protections, putting forward the funding so that we can share how consistent it is and ensuring that no part of our justice system can be used to continue that abuse. If we get this right, we are not just supporting victims in that moment; we are breaking a cycle that, left unchecked, will continue for generations.

913 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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