Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010

Amendment of Criminal Damage Act 1991.

101.— Section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1991  (as amended by the Family Law (Divorce) Act 1996 ) is amended by inserting the following subsection after subsection (3):

“(3A) A reference to any property belonging to another, however expressed, shall be construed as a reference to a shared home as respects an offence under section 2, 3(a) or 4(a) if—

(a) the property is either a shared home or a dwelling, within the meaning of section 27 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010, in which a person who was a civil partner in a civil partnership that has been dissolved under that Act ordinarily resided with his or her former civil partner before the dissolution, and

(b) the person charged—

(i) is the civil partner, or was the civil partner until the dissolution of their civil partnership, of a person who resides, or is entitled to reside, in the home, and

(ii) is the subject of a protection order or barring order or is excluded from the home pursuant to an order under the Domestic Violence Act 1996 as amended by Part 9 of the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010 or another order of a court.”.