- Domestic Abuse Commissioner calls on government to be “braver and bolder” in its decision making to deliver for victims and survivors of domestic abuse.
- Commissioner welcomes government commitment to a digital oversight tool, but presses for funding and timelines to be made public.
- Local councils warn they will not be able to conduct Domestic Homicide Reviews in the future due to a lack of dedicated funding.
Today (27 May) , the UK Government has issued its formal response to the Domestic Abuse Commissioner’s report into how learnings from Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) – an independent review conducted when someone over 16 loses their life because of violence, abuse or neglect – are acted on both nationally and locally.
The report made several proposals to government on how it could improve the independent oversight of recommendations stemming from DHRs to better implement learnings, so these tragic deaths do not happen again. The Commissioner also called for dedicated funding to be made available to councils to deliver the growing number of DHRs they are needing to conduct.
The Commissioner was pleased to see the government reiterate its intention to develop a digital oversight tool to ensure recommendations are captured – an intervention announced in early March by the then Safeguarding Minister, Jess Phillips.
However, she has expressed frustration that the official response does not provide any further update on what funding will be made available to deliver the tool, a timeline for its rollout, or how it will improve accountability for government departments and wider agencies on implementing recommendations made to them.
She also said she is “deeply concerned” that the government has outright rejected her call to provide dedicated funding to councils to help them deliver DHRs.
Since 2011, local councils have been mandated to conduct domestic homicide reviews – which the Domestic Abuse Commissioner and the Local Government Association estimate cost an average of £10,000 – yet no funding has ever been allocated for Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) – a group of agencies responsible for assessing and addressing local safety issues – to do so.
In 2016, DHRs were then broadened in scope to include domestic-abuse-related suicides and again no additional funding arrangements were made. This change, welcomed by the Commissioner, has led to an increase in the number of deaths meeting the criteria for a review.
The growing rate of DHRs councils must oversee has also come against the backdrop of local authorities’ budgets being cut or frozen. This is leaving local councils with ever dwindling resources which they must also use to fund public services.
Without dedicated funding, local areas have told the Domestic Abuse Commissioner that they will struggle to deliver these potentially life-saving reviews in the future. This risks creating a postcode lottery, with review decisions being made on financial grounds and opportunities missed to take learnings forward.
While the response acknowledges the pressures faced by councils and indicates that updated statutory guidance will help improve the effectiveness of delivery, there is no timeline for when this will be published, despite the public consultation to improve the statutory guidance being launched more than two years ago.
The government has an ambitious target to halve violence against women and girls within a decade and centres reducing female domestic homicide as key to achieving this. The Commissioner is urging the government to be “bolder and braver” in its decisions to speed up delivery for people subject to domestic abuse, and ensure vital lessons are not lost.
Dame Nicole Jacobs, Domestic Abuse Commissioner for England and Wales, said:
“When someone loses their life to domestic abuse, we should be doing all we can to learn from this tragedy and ensure it never happens again.
“While I’m pleased to see the government reaffirm its commitment to deliver a digital oversight tool, the lack of dedicated funding to ensure councils can conduct these potentially life-saving reviews is deeply concerning – particularly when councils are telling me they will struggle to commission them if further resource isn’t found.
“In the last few weeks, this government has been accused of delivering incremental change for victims and survivors of abuse. If it wants to achieve its mission and be a world leader in tackling VAWG it must be braver and bolder in its decisions.
“Ministers must reconsider this response and make dedicated funding available to ensure DHRs can be effectively conducted. This will not just deliver genuine improvements for people subject to domestic abuse, it will ultimately save lives.
“I want to once again thank the areas that, in spite of funding challenges, gave their time, expertise and commitment to piloting the oversight mechanism.”
ENDS
Notes to editors
- Read the Commissioner’s full Learning from Loss report. You can also see a full appendix of national DHR recommendations by government department.
- Average DHR costs calculated from the Commissioner’s 2024 survey, conducted in partnership with the Local Government Association.
- The government’s VAWG Strategy has sent the number of female homicides as a sub-headline metric of its success in achieving its aims. The first pillar of the Strategy focuses on the prevention of VAWG and early intervention for victims and survivors. DHRs provide a wealth of knowledge in achieving both.