Last updated on August 18th, 2015 at 12:52 pm
It seems, therefore, that following government consultation in October 2011, the pilot of the domestic violence disclosure scheme, ‘Clare’s Law’, could not have come a minute too soon. Taking place in four police force areas across the country, the pilot will run for 12 months from summer 2012, trialling 2 different processes: ‘right to ask’, where information relating to a person’s previous domestic violence will be disclosed if requested by a member of the public, and ‘right to know’, where information is provided pro-actively by the Police if they feel that it is likely to protect a potential victim.
Named after Clare Wood, who was murdered by a former partner with a history of violence in 2009, the scheme does have some opposition from organisations such as Refuge, but having campaigned tirelessly since the death of his daughter, Clare’s father, Michael, believes that women have the right to know more about people with whom they have a relationship and that they will be safer for doing so. Michael believes that Clare would have ‘dropped him like a hot brick’ had she known about her former partner’s violent past and that such knowledge would have enabled her to make an “educated decision” about her relationship with her partner.
Home Secretary Teresa May says that the scheme is designed to “prevent tragic incidents” and it seems to have been based on a good predecessor – the child sex offender disclosure scheme, Sarah’s Law, which came about after Sarah Payne was murdered by a known paedophile. Now fully in place in England and Wales, this scheme also started with a pilot which resulted in 315 applications for information and uncovered 21 cases where a child may have been at risk of contact with a potentially dangerous person.
We have yet to see whether the scheme will be rolled out nationwide of course, and await that result eagerly, but in the meantime, if you have been the victim of domestic abuse and you want prompt and confidential advice on what you can do about it, contact our specialist domestic violence lawyers at Graysons WE on 0114 358 9009 or email family@graysons.co.uk
We understand that you may feel ashamed and you may even feel to blame – you shouldn’t! You might still love your partner and you may believe ‘it won’t happen again’. You could be worried about the consequences of telling someone but remember, domestic violence is a crime that you do not have to put up with.
Don’t suffer in silence – contact us now.
Read more about domestic violence here
