1. (1) This section defines “domestic abuse” for the purposes of this Act.

(2) Behaviour of a person (“A”) towards another person (“B”) is “domestic abuse” if—

(a) A and B are each aged 16 or over and are personally connected to each other, and

(b) the behaviour is abusive.

(3) Behaviour is “abusive” if it consists of any of the following—

(a) physical or sexual abuse;

(b) violent or threatening behaviour;

(c) controlling or coercive behaviour;

(d) economic abuse (see subsection (4));

(e) psychological, emotional or other abuse;

and it does not matter whether the behaviour consists of a single incident or a course of conduct.

(a) acquire, use or maintain money or other property, or

(b) obtain goods or services.

(5) For the purposes of this Act A’s behaviour may be behaviour

“towards” B despite the fact that it consists of conduct directed

at another person (for example, B’s child).

(6) References in this Act to being abusive towards another person are to be read in accordance with this section.

(7) For the meaning of “personally connected”, see section 2.

2B. “domestic abuse” includes, but is not limited to, forced marriage, honour-based violence, dowry related abuse and transnational marriage abandonment.

For the purpose of this Practice Direction “the 2021 Act” means the Domestic Abuse Act 2021;

“abandonment” refers to the practice whereby a husband, in England and Wales,

deliberately abandons or “strands” his foreign national wife abroad, usually

without financial resources, in order to prevent her from asserting matrimonial

and/or residence rights and/or rights in relation to childcare in England and

Wales. It may involve children who are either abandoned with, or separated from, their mother;

“coercive behaviour” means an act or a pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten the victim;

“controlling behaviour” means an act or pattern of acts designed to make a person subordinate and/or dependent by isolating them from sources of support, exploiting their resources and capacities for personal gain, depriving them of the means needed for independence, resistance and escape and regulating their everyday behaviour;

“development” means physical, intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development;

“harm” means ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development including, for example, impairment suffered from seeing or hearing the illtreatment of another, by domestic abuse or otherwise;

“harm” means ill-treatment or the impairment of health or development including, for example, impairment suffered from being a victim of domestic abuse or from seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another, by domestic abuse or otherwise; “health” means physical or mental health;

“ill-treatment” includes sexual abuse and forms of ill-treatment which are not physica.l