BRADFORD’S MPs were divided yesterday in a vote on whether a new category of offender should be set up in monitoring systems to protect victims of domestic abuse and violence.

MPs were debating the Domestic Abuse Bill in Parliament yesterday, including a key amendment suggestion put forward by the House of Lords.

The amendment was for the “monitoring of serial and serious harm domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA)”.

This would have meant that repeat offenders of domestic abuse would have their identities stored on a criminal database and monitored, to ensure existing and potentially future victims are protected from offenders and to manage offenders.

The amendment was supported by the majority of Opposition parties in Parliament, but the Conservative Government rejected it, with only two of its MPs defying the party whips.

Introducing the amendment, safeguarding minister Victoria Atkins said while everyone was agreed on its objective, the Government “had concerns” about how it would work.

She said: “Creating a new MAPPA category for high-harm domestic abuse and stalking perpetrators would bring added complexity to the MAPPA framework without compensating benefits.

“The Criminal Justice Act 2003 already provides for serial and high-harm offenders to be managed under MAPPA.

“The real issue, therefore, is not the statutory framework but how it is applied in practice. Here, we accept that there is more to do, and we are strengthening the MAPPA statutory guidance to include sections on domestic abuse.”

Ms Atkins said work has begun on a new system which would allow “more efficient and effective management of high-threat offenders and improve information sharing between frontline agencies”, and the suggestion to create a new “national perpetrator strategy” is already part of its plans being published later this year.

Jess Phillips, Labour’s shadow minister for domestic violence and safeguarding, said they supported the amendment, and said the Government’s proposals doesn’t have “anywhere near enough teeth or will account for, identify and offer safety to the victims now dead at the hands of the most serial perpetrators”.

She added: “There is a desperate need in this country to do something to identify, manage and monitor these high-harm perpetrators of stalking and domestic abuse. They would not have been met by current MAPPA.”

In the vote the Government voted down the amendment by 351 votes to 226.

Shipley’s Philip Davies and Keighley’s Robbie Moore, as well as Stuart Andrew (Pudsey), Julian Smith (Skipton and Ripon) and Craig Whittaker (Calder Valley), who are all Conservative MPs, voted against the amendment.

Labour MPs Judith Cummins (Bradford South), Imran Hussain (Bradford East), Naz Shah (Bradford West), Tracy Brabin (Batley and Spen), and Alex Sobel (Leeds North West) all voted in support of the amendment.

Last year in Bradford there was an increase in domestic abuse offences reported to police, markedly in stalking and harrassment offences, violence, and criminal damage, while the number of domestic abuse rapes reported to police in 2020 was 30 per cent higher than the previous 12 months.

Domestic abuse charities also told the Telegraph & Argus the reality of the situation was worse than police figures suggested, with many victims feeling unable to report offences and seeing a big rise in calls to their helplines.