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.
"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.
Statistics show 190 'right to know' applications under the DVDS were applied for in Essex in the year ending March 2023. For the same area, in the same year, 13 'right to know' application(s) under the DVDS were given disclosure, with 29 'right to ask' applications under the DVDS were given disclosure.
Speaking to us previously regarding the force's Clare's Law disclosures, Chief Constable Ben-Julian Harrington says since then they put a number of measures in place.
"We have now made sure that where a person comes forward and say 'I would like to know about this person or that person', we now know how to make sure we disclose it appropriately."
"We have done more disclosures under Clare's Law since we made that change than we did in the previous six years."
Also speaking previously, Chief Constable Harrington discussed a new team which were handling the information relating to Clare's Law.
"One of the key elements is how we deal with information. We now have got an information management unit who are expert at disclosing information, they deal with all the freedom of information requests and have now taken over what's called Clare's Law."
"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."