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Domestic Abuse Act 2021, Section 2 — Definition of "Personally Connected"

Jurisdiction: England & Wales · Citation: Domestic Abuse Act 2021 (c. 17), section 2 · Authoritative source: legislation.gov.uk — s.2

The statutory definition of the personally connected relationship that triggers the s.1 DAA 2021 domestic-abuse definition. Critically important in parental-alienation cases because s.2(1)(f) explicitly extends the DA framework to two people who have a parental relationship in relation to the same child — even where the parents were never married, never cohabited, and have no other personal connection. This is the statutory hook that catches the post-separation, never-cohabited co-parents category that historically fell outside DV-specific legislation.

Verbatim text (current consolidated)

2 Definition of "personally connected"

(1) For the purposes of this Act, two people are "personally connected" to each other if any of the following applies—

(a) they are, or have been, married to each other;

(b) they are, or have been, civil partners of each other;

© they have agreed to marry one another (whether or not the agreement has been terminated);

(d) they have entered into a civil partnership agreement (whether or not the agreement has been terminated);

(e) they are, or have been, in an intimate personal relationship with each other;

(f) they each have, or there has been a time when they each have had, a parental relationship in relation to the same child (see subsection (2));

(g) they are relatives.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)(f) a person has a parental relationship in relation to a child if—

(a) the person is a parent of the child, or

(b) the person has parental responsibility for the child.

(3) In this section—

"child" means a person under the age of 18 years;

"civil partnership agreement" has the meaning given by section 73 of the Civil Partnership Act 2004;

"parental responsibility" has the same meaning as in the Children Act 1989;

"relative" has the meaning given by section 63(1) of the Family Law Act 1996.

Why this matters for PA

  • s.2(1)(f) — "parental relationship in relation to the same child" is the critical PA-relevant trigger. The definition catches co-parents who have never been married, never been civil partners, and never been in an intimate personal relationship — for example, parents of a child conceived via casual relationship, donor-conceived parents, or parents who separated before establishing a cohabiting relationship. Pre-2021 DV legislation typically required some form of cohabitation or intimate-relationship history; s.2(1)(f) DAA 2021 explicitly closes that gap.
  • s.2(2)(b) — "parental responsibility" — incorporates by reference the CA 1989 framework. A step-parent who has acquired parental responsibility via CA 1989 s.4A, or a special guardian under s.14A, can be "personally connected" to the other parent for DAA 2021 purposes.
  • s.2(1)(e) — "intimate personal relationship" — broader than "cohabiting" and now captures both current and former intimate partners regardless of cohabitation. Useful in PA contexts where the alienating-conduct pattern emerges from a non-cohabiting intimate-partner history.
  • s.2(1)(g) — "relatives" — Family Law Act 1996 s.63(1) defines this to include former parents-in-law, siblings, grandparents — relevant where wider-family enablers of an alienating parent are involved.
  • Multi-trigger structure — the definition is disjunctive (any of (a)–(g)). A single relationship history triggers the DAA 2021 framework; multiple triggers reinforce it.

Practical effect in PA cases

The combination of s.1 and s.2 means that post-separation, non-cohabiting co-parents are now within the DAA 2021 framework for the first time. The pre-2021 Family Law Act 1996 Part IV regime (occupation and non-molestation orders) required broader-family or cohabiting-relationship triggers; the DAA 2021 explicitly extends the framework to bare-parental-relationship cases. This is the statutory foundation for treating long-running PA-pattern litigation between unmarried separated co-parents as a DA matter rather than just a private-law children dispute.

Sources & authoritative references

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