Police forces to be scrutinised over Clare's Law stats
The Home Office will look at how police process applications
The Home Office is going to start scrutinising police forces over the way they handle and process Clare's Law applications. The Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) as it's known, allows people to ask if their partner has a history of violence. Recent recorded data highlighted significant inconsistencies in how it's applied by police forces in England and Wales, potentially putting people at risk of domestic abuse.
In the year up to March 2023 Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire police made 143 disclosures.
"Where there are pockets were any force has not been as affective as others we're determined to find that out."
Wiltshire police recently referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after announcing it was having to review 3,500 Clare’s law applications dating back to 2015, after failing to disclose information that could have protected individuals at risk from domestic abuse. It's since been confirmed two individuals came to physical harm after information was not disclosed to them.
The latest figures show in the year up to March 2023, 17,438 disclosures were made across England and Wales.
"Clare's Law has been one of the most effective tools we've had to protecting women."
Safeguarding Minister Laura Farris tells us, "One of the conversations I've had very recently with the Home Secretary is about scrutinising all the dataset we currently have from all 43 police forces across England and Wales as to the number of applications they're receiving, the number of disclosures they're making, the length of time those are taking and the reasons why they might not be disclosing everything, because we're determined to get to the bottom of good performance, bad performance, and ensure there is absolute consistency across all 43 forces."
She went on to say, "Clare's Law has been one of the most effective tools we've had to protecting women, particularly when they're starting relationships with new people, for whatever reason they've had a suspicion about them and have gone to police and they've found that they have been made aware of information that points to that person being a danger and we have no doubt that it's protecting women. So where there are pockets were any force has not been as affective as others we're determined to find that out and make sure the next decade of Clare's Law is even better."