Andy Munns
The urgent review being carried out by Wiltshire Police into more than 3,500 Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (known as Clare’s Law) applications has concluded.
After identifying critical failures in their service under the Clare’s Law scheme in October last year, Wiltshire Police announced an urgent review of all applications made to us between April 2015 and August 2023.
This followed a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding concerns linked to disclosures made under the scheme by one member of Wiltshire Police staff.
As a result, they committed to reviewing every single application which has totalled 3,778 applications (an increase on the original figure of 3,582 following additional database checks).
In January, Wiltshire Police confirmed that we had risk assessed each of the 3,778 applications after adopting a risk-based approach which involved dedicated officers triaging applications into different risk categories.
All detailed reviews of applications requiring them have been completed and appropriate action has been taken.
The review identified a total of 33 failures in Wiltshire Police’s service – this equates to less than 1% of the 3,778 applications. Wiltshire Police know of two failures which have resulted in people being harmed and of the other failures, Police believe 14 are administrative failures, and 17 are service failures; this is where Wiltshire Police should have disclosed and didn’t or where inadequate research was done.
Chief Constable Catherine Roper said: “Whilst I hope our communities will take some reassurance from the fact we’ve now reviewed all of these applications, we should never forget that people were put at risk due to our failures.
“We let people down and we now know that our failures may have contributed to at least two people being harmed. This is completely unacceptable and I remain appalled that this ever happened.
“As soon as I was made aware of these failures, I ensured dedicated resources were put in place to work to understand where we are failed, who might be at risk as a result of these failures and the urgent action we needed to take.
“The completion of the 3,778 risk assessments ensured that we identified the people who required our immediate support.
“There are a small number of people who we’ve been unable to contact or where contacting them directly might not have been safe or appropriate. We will continue to attempt contact where safe to do so.
“I know we have let you down and caused additional anxiety, but I ask again for your trust and urge you to come forward if you have any concerns or information regarding people at risk of domestic abuse.
“We’ve put in place additional resources and scrutiny to ensure this important service is delivered in the right way.”
The IOPC’s independent investigation is ongoing, and Wiltshire Police say they have been in regular contact with them to update them on the progress of their own review.
