Submitted by: The Committee of Management 

The National Council of Women in Conference assembled, greatly concerned by the desperate situation of wives who seek refuge and help on leaving the matrimonial home after physical assaults by their husbands, urges the Secretary of State for Social Services and the Home Secretary to take urgent steps to help them, by: (a) directing and encouraging the provision of Local Authority and grant-aided charitable ‘Refuge Hostels’ in which they and their children may obtain emergency accommodation; (b) establishing the entitlement of these women and their children to emergency payment of supplementary benefits; (c) ensuring that emergency certificates for Legal Aid are made available for application for Court separation orders, maintenance orders and injunctions; (d) calling for a review of the laws on Assault and Battery, Compensation, and of Police procedure in matters involving domestic and matrimonial assaults.  

Reaffirmed 2006