Starting on 1st October 2021, healthcare professionals can no longer charge patients to provide medical evidence of Domestic Violence and Abuse

The Domestic Abuse Act received Royal Assent in April of this year and it was conceived to provide further protections to the millions of people who experience Domestic Violence and Abuse (DVA) and strengthen measures to tackle perpetrators. And today, 1^st October of 2021, one important provision, established by section 80 of the Act, comes into effect: from now on, healthcare professionals are prohibited from charging a victim of domestic abuse for a letter to support an application for legal aid.

“Many women supported through IRIS programmes have experienced challenges when seeking written support for legal aid applications from their GP or primary care practitioner. The system has required payment for this which places an unrealistic, unfair and added burden on women who are already in distress and facing challenges in accessing help and support. We welcome the legislation that comes into force today and hope it will ease the way for many more women to access legal aid swiftly and more easily”, explains Medina Johnson, CEO at IRISi.

See below what section 80 of the DA Act says in full.

Section 80: Prohibition on charging for the provision of medical evidence of domestic abuse

(1) No person may charge a fee or any other remuneration for the preparation or provision of relevant evidence relating to an assessment of an individual carried out by a relevant health professional in England or Wales under a qualifying medical services contract.

(2) No person may charge a fee or any other remuneration for the preparation or provision of relevant evidence relating to an individual by a relevant health professional in England or Wales if the services provided by the relevant health professional are wholly or mainly services provided under a qualifying medical services contract.

(3) In this section “relevant evidence”, in relation to an individual, means—

(a) evidence that the individual is, or is at risk of being, a victim of domestic abuse which is intended to support an application by the individual for civil legal services, or

(b) any other evidence that the individual is, or is at risk of being, a victim of domestic abuse which is of a description specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.

(4) In this section “relevant health professional” means—

(a) a medical practitioner licensed to practise by the General Medical Council;

(b) a health professional registered to practise in the United Kingdom by the Nursing and Midwifery Council;

(5) In this section “qualifying medical services contract” means—

(a) in relation to England—

(i) a general medical services contract made under section 84(2) of the National Health Service Act 2006;

(ii) any contractual arrangements made under section 83(2) of that Act;

(iii) an agreement made under section 92 of that Act;

(b) in relation to Wales—

(i) a general medical services contract made under section 42(2) of the National Health Service (Wales) Act 2006;

(ii) any contractual arrangements made under section 41(2)(b) of that Act;

(iii) an agreement made under section 50 of that Act.

(6) The appropriate national authority may by regulations amend the definition of— 68 Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (c. 17) PART 7 – Miscellaneous and general Document Generated: 2021-06-29 Status: This is the original version (as it was originally enacted).

(a) “relevant health professional”;

(b) “qualifying medical services contract”.

(7) In this section— “appropriate national authority” means—

(a) in relation to England, the Secretary of State;

(b) in relation to Wales, the Welsh Ministers; “assessment” includes a consultation, whether in person or otherwise; “civil legal services” has the meaning given by section 8 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

(8) Subsections (1) and (2) do not apply in relation to anything done by a relevant health professional before the coming into force of this section.

Partners

AVA

AVA is an expert, groundbreaking and independent charity working across the UK.

Their vision is a world without gender based violence and abuse. They aim to inspire innovation and collaboration and encourage and enable direct service providers to help end gender based violence and abuse particularly against women and girls.AVA’s work is focused around those areas where they can make the best contribution to ending violence and abuse. They do this by making sure that survivors get the help and support they need in the here and now, through providing innovative training that has a proven direct impact on the professional practice of people supporting survivors of violence and abuse

developing a range of toolkits, e-learning and other material that supports professionals to provide effective and appropriate support to survivors of violence and abuse

using our influence and networks to ensure survivors voices are heard. We work closely with AVA in many areas including the Pathfinder project

https://avaproject.org.uk

SafeLives

SafeLives are a national charity dedicated to ending domestic abuse, for good. We combine insight from services, survivors and statistics to support people to become safe, well and rebuild their lives. Since 2005, SafeLives has worked with organisations across the country to transform the response to domestic abuse, with over 60,000 victims at highest risk of murder or serious harm now receiving co-ordinated support annually. SafeLives are members of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.safelives.org.uk/about-us

IMKAAN

Imkaan is a UK-based, Black feminist organisation. We are the only national second-tier women’s organisation dedicated to addressing violence against Black and minoritised women and girls i.e. women and girls which are defined in policy terms as Black and ‘Minority Ethnic’ (BME). The organisation holds nearly two decades of experience of working around issues such as domestic violence, forced marriage and ‘honour-based’ violence.

They work at local, national and international level, and in partnership with a range of organisations, to improve policy and practice responses to Black and minoritised women and girls. Imkaan works with it’s members to represent the expertise and perspectives of frontline, specialist and dedicated Black and minoritised women’s organisations that work to prevent and respond to violence against women and girls. Imkaan delivers a unique package of support which includes: quality assurance; accredited training and peer education; sustainability support to frontline Black and minoritised organisations; and facilitation of space for community engagement and development. They are a part of the Pathfinder Consortium.

https://www.imkaan.org.uk

The University of Bristol CAPC

The Centre for Academic Primary Care (CAPC) is a leading centre for primary care research in the UK, one of nine forming the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. It is part of Bristol Medical School, an internationally recognised centre of excellence for population health research and teaching.

A dedicated team of researchers at the Centre work on domestic abuse projects and IRISi is a co-collaborator and partner on some of these projects including ReProvide, HERA and DRiDVA.

The Health Foundation

The Health Foundation is an independent charity committed to bringing about better health and health care for people in the UK. The Health Foundation’s Exploring Social Franchising programme aims to generate a deeper understanding of the potential of social franchising models for scaling effective health and social care interventions within the NHS.

We are one of four project teams participating in the programme to develop a social franchise to enable the sustainable spread of our intervention, the IRIS Programme. We receive funding and support from the Health Foundation, including technical expertise on social franchising, and attend programme learning events. The Health Foundation has also commissioned a programme-wide evaluation to support understanding of the use of social franchising in the UK health and care system. We and our franchisees will support the evaluation through co-designing data collection requirements, providing access to data as requested, hosting site visits and attending learning events.

https://www.health.org.uk

STADV

Standing Together Against Domestic Violence is a UK charity bringing communities together to end domestic abuse. They bring local services together to keep people safe

Most public services weren’t designed with domestic abuse in mind, and they often struggle to keep people safe. Poor communication and gaps between services put survivors at risk.

STADV aim to end domestic abuse by changing the way that local services respond to it. They do this through an approach that they pioneered, called the Coordinated Community Response. The Coordinated Community Response brings services together to ensure local systems truly keep survivors safe, hold abusers to account, and prevent domestic abuse.

Their model of a coordinated local partnership to tackle and ultimately prevent domestic violence is now widely accepted as best practice. They are also a part of the Pathfinder consortium.

http://www.standingtogether.org.uk

Spring Impact

Spring Impact is a not-for-profit social enterprise born out of the frustration of seeing social organisations constantly reinventing the wheel and wasting scarce resources. Spring Impact uses a combination of tested commercial and social principles and extensive practical expertise to support organisations to identify, design and implement the right social replication model to scale their social impact.