Transparency data

Home Office response to recommendations from 'A duty to protect' (accessible)

Published 7 June 2022

Applies to England and Wales

Letter information

From: Michael Cordy, Deputy Director Police Integrity Unit, Home Office

To: Katherine Riley, Portfolio Director Criminal Justice Joint Inspection Protecting Vulnerable People Inspections and Super-complaints HMICFRS

Sent on: 30 March 2022

Dear Katherine,

A duty to protect: report on the Centre for Women’s Justice super-complaint on police use of protective measures in cases involving violence against women and girls

Firstly, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) report following the Centre for Women’s Justice super-complaint. I welcome your recommendations for the Home Office. I have been overseeing progress on the recommendations within your report on pre-charge bail alongside my colleagues who lead on domestic abuse. I am writing to provide an update on these strands of work.

Tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a government priority. VAWG crimes have no place in our society and this government is committed to ensuring more perpetrators feel the full force of the law and improving our support to those who suffer at the hands of abusers. Your inspection into the police response to VAWG in September last year showed there is more to do to ensure the police tackle these crimes effectively. As you’ll know, we welcomed the findings of your VAWG inspection last year and have since announced that we are accepting all its recommendations.

The landmark Domestic Abuse Act will further strengthen our protection to victims and introduced new measures to bring perpetrators to justice, including a civil Domestic Abuse Protection Notice (DAPN) and civil Domestic Abuse Protection Order (DAPO). The DAPO will bring together the strongest elements of existing protective orders into a single, comprehensive order to provide flexible, longer-term protection for victims from all forms of domestic abuse. The new notice and order will seek to address areas of concern within the current Domestic Violence Protection Notice (DVPN) and Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) regime. This includes making a breach of any DAPO requirement a criminal offence punishable by up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, or both. DAPOs, unlike DVPOs, will be available in the criminal, family and civil courts, and police, victims, and third parties will be able to make an application.

The Government is currently undergoing extensive work to prepare the notice and order for piloting from early 2023, working closely with the police, courts, and the sector to design and implement the new regime as effectively as possible. A process and impact evaluation will be undertaken to ensure that the DAPN and DAPO are fit-for-purpose ahead of expected national roll-out in 2025. The Government has also engaged with HMICFRS on early discussions on evaluation methodology. DVPNs and DVPOs will be repealed with the national introduction of DAPNs and DAPOs and the Government is taking into account the findings of this HMICFRS report and the ‘Police response to violence against women and girls’ report, in the design and implementation of the DAPN and DAPO.

A fair and effective system of pre-charge bail is also essential to ensure that victims are well-protected. The Government has taken action to put this protection at the heart of the new system with the reforms included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Building on the results of the public consultation and engagement with key stakeholders, these provisions will re-balance the emphasis of the pre-charge bail system, aiming to improve the safeguarding of victims and ensuring that police apply bail in every case where it is necessary and proportionate. As part of this change in focus, there will be a new duty on the police to seek alleged victims’ views on whether conditions can be imposed to help ensure their protection. This will mean that victims are more involved and informed in the process. Statutory guidance, issued by the College of Policing, will underpin these changes and provide consistency across England and Wales. These reforms are known as Kay’s Law in memory of Kay Richardson who tragically lost her life at the hands of her estranged husband while he was released under investigation.

The Home Office recognises that there is more to be done on these protective measures, noting that much of the work on the recommendations made is already underway.

Recommendation 4

The Home Office should commission research on whether bail reduces re-offending and protects victims, and publish the findings of any such research.

We agree that a clear understanding of the effects of bail and its impact on re-offending and the protection of victims would be beneficial to work in this area. We note that there is some existing research relevant here, including your thematic inspection on bail in 2020 and more peripherally your inspection on domestic abuse in 2019. There are also a number of academic works which consider similar themes, particularly around victims’ experiences of the bail system.

It is also important to bear in mind that, in the time since this super-complaint was made, we have proposed changes to the pre-charge bail legislative framework, with provisions included in the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. Subject to the Bill achieving Royal Assent, we expect the pre-charge bail provisions within the Bill to be implemented 6 months after Royal Assent, in the latter half of this year. The reforms will constitute a marked shift in the focus of the pre-charge bail system and we expect that, as such, they will have an impact on re-offending and the protection of victims.

Therefore, while we agree in principle that further research may prove useful, it would be sensible to consider this further once the 2022 changes have been implemented and embedded, allowing us to understand their impact more widely and with specific reference to re-offending and victim protection. It is also important to recognise the challenging nature of conducting research in this area, usually requiring navigation of a number of ethical issues. We will commit to exploring the feasibility of further research once the 2022 changes are fully embedded.

Recommendation 5

The Home Office and Ministry of Justice should intensify and accelerate their consideration of the creation of a bespoke offence of breaching pre-charge bail.

We understand the strength of feeling regarding breaches of pre-charge bail conditions and the desire to ensure that they are appropriately dealt with. Throughout the course of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice have considered the evidence on the potential creation of a new offence as well as alternative options. While these were considered in detail, the Government will not be introducing an offence of breaching pre-charge bail.

It should be noted that, where an individual has breached their conditions, it may be appropriate to arrest that individual for a separate offence, such as witness intimidation or harassment. Similarly, the full suite of civil orders can be imposed by a court and the breach of a Domestic Abuse Protection Order, once implemented, would constitute a separate criminal offence.

Within the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill, we will introduce a 3 hour pause on the detention clock following an arrest for breach of bail conditions which is designed to encourage arrests for such breaches. In tandem with this, we have made changes to the Annual Data Requirement so that forces provide information on breaches of bail. This data should give us a more accurate picture of the scale of the problem and will inform future policy-making. This data is currently collected on a voluntary basis but we are working to make this mandatory in the future, following engagement with data systems providers.

In response to this recommendation, work has intensified on ensuring that there are options available to policing and that we are improving the evidence base in relation to breaches to inform future decisions.

Recommendation 6

The Ministry of Justice and the Home Office should review the mechanism for informing the police of NMOs and propose remedies for improvement.

Given that this is a joint recommendation and lies mostly with Ministry of Justice colleagues, the Ministry aim to deal with this recommendation in their separate letter.

Recommendation 9

The Home Office should publish data on the number of reported breaches of NMOs. This should form part of the annual data collection on the applications for and granting of NMOs

The Home Office currently collects data on the number of reported NMO breaches from police forces that submit their data to the Home Office Data Hub. The Home Office has agreed with the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and Ministry of Justice that the best place for these data to be published is in the ONS annual articles on Domestic Abuse, which compiles data from across government and more widely (the ONS, Home Office, HMICFRS, Ministry of Justice, and the sector).

We accept this recommendation and will provide the data the Home Office holds on NMO reported breaches for 2021/22 to the ONS to be published in November 2022.

I want to thank you again for considering the vital issues raised within this super-complaint. The Home Office will continue to work closely with key partners across England and Wales to ensure that the protective powers available to police are used efficiently and effectively to support victims.

Yours sincerely

Michael Cordy