Today, the UK government has published its initial response to my report – Shifting the Scales – that lifted the lid on the criminal justice system and its response to domestic abuse.
Instead of being a lifeline to victims – who in the face of incredible trauma seek justice – I found a system that struggles to hold perpetrators to account and continually fails to keep survivors safe. This is simply unacceptable.
Since taking office, the government has rightly made clear that we must treat tackling domestic abuse as a national emergency – and that doing so requires an ambitious response that delivers truly transformational change. In my report, I provided the government with a suite of recommendations – which when implemented together would bring the systemic change required within the justice system to help it meet these ambitions.
The police remain one of the first places survivors seek help. I am pleased the government will be taking forward my recommendation to strengthen misconduct procedures for officers suspected of domestic abuse and legally require officers to hold and maintain vetting clearance. But to restore faith and confidence in policing, it’s critical that the government introduces these measures swiftly to ensure police perpetrators will be removed from the force without delay.
Victims and survivors need to be confident that the justice system will step in to protect them, instead of penalising them for their own abuse. That’s why I’m disappointed to see government outright reject my recommendation to make defences more accessible for victims of domestic abuse who offend.
My recommendations are rightly ambitious and will need investment to make much-needed change a reality. I hope to see much more from the government in their upcoming Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy and in the Spending Review to provide greater clarity on whether, and how, my full suite of recommendations could be implemented. Cherry-picking elements from my report or re-badging existing programmes as new will not work.
A lack of integrated data across the justice system and inconsistent sharing of information remains one of the biggest challenges to tackling domestic abuse and holding agencies to account for their performance. Yet the government has not provided concrete assurance that it will invest in improving data gathering on domestic abuse, whether this be through better linking up of existing systems or developing a new one altogether.
Equally, survivors frequently tell me that a lack of understanding of domestic abuse by professionals within the justice system and the impact it has had on them, too often shapes their experience.
To address this, I asked that all professionals across the criminal justice system be comprehensively and consistently trained to identify and respond to domestic abuse. While the government’s response points to existing training available, my report makes clear that this is not enough. I have also not had clarity from government on what it will do to address these knowledge gaps.
I recognise that the government has said it will provide a follow up response once it has set out its spending plans in the coming months, which I look forward to receiving.
But I want to be clear that right now we have a criminal justice system that is failing victims of domestic abuse. Without a comprehensive strategy on how the government will deliver on these recommendations, backed up by adequate funding, I am deeply concerned that this will only continue.
The UK government has within its power the ability to create an effective, trusted and accountable criminal justice system. But it must be bold in its reform if it wants to ensure that survivors of domestic abuse get the right response, every single time.