SINGAPORE - A new 24-hour emergency response team will attend to high-risk cases of family violence to protect victims as part of a slew of proposed amendments to the Women’s Charter to strengthen protection for survivors of abuse.

The Domestic Violence Emergency Response Team under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) will be activated by the police when they receive a report of domestic violence that has immediate safety concerns for the victim.

Officers from the team can issue an emergency order at the scene, which may include prohibiting the perpetrator from being in the home and places frequently visited by the victim, as well as from contacting the victim.

The order is valid for 14 days to give the victim enough time to apply for a personal protection order (PPO), a court order restraining a person from committing violence against a family member. Any breach of the Emergency Order by the perpetrator will be an arrestable offence.

Currently, there is a time gap between an incident of family violence and the granting of a PPO, which means the abuser can hurt the victim during this period.

The new response team is one of the measures under the Family Violence Amendment Bill which was introduced in Parliament on Tuesday.

The Bill also seeks to address the issue of victims who refuse to apply for a PPO despite being in danger by empowering certain third parties like the director-general of social welfare and those authorised by her to apply for a PPO on the victims’ behalf.

MSF said victims may refuse to apply for a protection order due to the influence that the perpetrators have over them and the victims’ wish to preserve the relationships, to their own detriment.

The court will take into consideration the views of all affected parties, including the survivors’ account, before deciding if it is reasonable to apply for a PPO on the survivors’ behalf.

Those authorised by the director-general, called protectors, will be allowed to enter homes to assess and obtain information or evidence of victims experiencing family violence. Currently, the consent of victims is needed, but they may be unwilling to cooperate or share information.

For victims who may be unwilling to make a report when their perpetrators breach a protection order, the Bill will allow protectors to step in and apply for electronic monitoring of the abusers, if there is a reasonable suspicion that the PPO has been breached and the victims have been harmed.

The electronic monitoring, done through tagging, will ensure the abusers do not come physically close to the victims.

MSF said studies have shown that imposing electronic monitoring in domestic violence cases could improve survivors’ safety, ensure compliance with a PPO and other orders, record evidence of order breaches, and enhance supervision of perpetrators.

As a last resort, if all other measures are not enough to protect victims, protectors can apply to the court to remove the victims from their home. This can be done if their safety is seriously threatened, but they do not take steps to protect themselves, for example, by refusing to report a breach of a PPO.

Victims may choose to stay with their relatives or friends. If this option is not available, MSF will facilitate their move into a crisis shelter for women and children, or a transitional shelter for men. 

Under the Bill, the court will also have the power to better assess a revocation application of a PPO. Currently, if an application to revoke the protection order is made and the other party consents to it, the order will be revoked.

The new Bill will allow the court to disregard the consent given by the survivor for a PPO revocation if there is reasonable grounds to believe that his consent to the application was not voluntarily given.

The court will also need to consider reports by the perpetrator’s counselling agency or psychiatrists, if the person was issued counselling or mandatory treatment.