MOSCOW, November 23 (Sputnik) — The UK Home Office will reportedly introduce a new bill which would subject those who exercise coercive control over their partners to imprisonment for up to 14 years, Sky News reported Sunday.
The broadcaster said the bill was expected to reveal domestic abuse much earlier before partners suffer significantly. It also said about 1.2 million UK women had become victims of domestic abuse annually.
According to Harry Fletcher, director of the charity Digital-Trust, women tend not to report domestic violence to law enforcement bodies due to lack of confidence in the British judicial system.
"The main reason women don't report incidents to police is a lack of confidence in the judicial system and a real fear that the behaviour of the perpetrator might escalate as a result of doing that," Sky News quoted Fletcher as saying.
The new act is expected to take effect before the General Election in the United Kingdom in 2015.
