How Theresa May could demonstrate her commitment to tackling domestic abuse

Could domestic abuse be the latest policy area to fall foul of the government’s inability to get anything done? It certainly seemed so yesterday when Theresa May told MPs at PMQs that the planned Domestic Violence Bill would not be published in draft form in the next few weeks, as ministers had previously suggested, but that there would be a consultation first. I say in the Sun today that this means we won’t see even the draft legislation until the autumn, and so the full bill will come still later.

On one level, announcing a full public consultation on the new legislation before going to a draft bill before legislating for real is a very admirable thing to do. Governments can really botch policy when they rush legislation on complex issues through Parliament without first working out what it is that they want to do, and then finding out how they can actually do it.