New principles published to help break the cycle of domestic abuse

The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) have released new principles relating to the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) – sometimes known as Clare’s Law – to help police forces provide a more consistent approach and effectively support and safeguard people at risk from domestic abuse.  

The scheme, implemented following a successful campaign by the parents of Clare Wood after her tragic murder, allows people of any sex to enquire whether their partner has previous convictions for domestic abuse – known as the right to ask – and puts a responsibility on forces to inform people if they believe their partner could be a risk to them – known as the right to know.  

The DVDS was implemented across all police forces in England and Wales in March 2014, however the approach – and therefore the support to victims – has been inconsistent in the way that individual forces apply the thresholds for disclosing information. These updated principles aim to bring the required consistency across forces with clear governance and performance metrics.  

This is one of several pieces of work that the NPCC and College of Policing are working on with forces to support improvements to tackling domestic abuse, with an overall commitment to providing an enhanced service to victims and putting them at the centre of their response. 

Assistant Chief Constable Tom Harding, Director of Public Safety & Risk at the College of Policing, said:  

“This is about protecting victims and potential victims. Incidents of domestic abuse are too high, and we need to work together to share information with victims whenever we can. The DVDS is an important tool to help achieve this and we need to make sure it is used consistently across all forces. These new principles will help policing, by making it clear when forces should disclose information to those at risk of domestic abuse.” 

Louisa Rolfe, NPCC lead for Domestic Abuse, said: “Domestic abuse causes considerable harm to victims and has wider impacts across society.  

“People rightly expect, where policing knows an individual may present a risk of domestic abuse, this knowledge is appropriately shared to protect potential victims. 

“It is imperative that we offer a consistent, supportive service to those at risk of, or enduring abuse. And these principles, developed by policing with the support of victims’ charities and academics, aim to minimise the threat and break the cycle of abuse.” 

The principles can be found on the College of Policing website.  

 -ENDS-