Mr Zhulkarnain Abdul Rahim asked the Minister for Social and Family Development for the past five years, in cases of family violence (a) how many orders under the Mandatory Counselling Programme have been made to mandate perpetrators, victims and other family members to attend counselling; (b) what is the percentage of cases in which one party failed to attend the counselling programme; and (c) what is the percentage of cases, following the counselling programme, which led to a withdrawal of the Personal Protection Order or Expedited Order.
Answer
1. Under the Women’s Charter, the Court may issue a counselling order for the protection or personal safety of the applicant of a Personal Protection Order (PPO).
2. From 2017 to 2021, about 4,300 counselling orders were issued. About 8% of the respondents did not attend any counselling sessions.
3. The Court has not compiled data on the proportion of cases where the PPO was withdrawn following the mandatory counselling programme.