“Clare’s Law” must not bypass the legal system

The Home Office is expected to imminently announce pilot schemes of the so-called “Clare’s Law” that will give women the right to ask police about their partner’s violent history.  The pilot comes after a campaign for a change in the law to help protect women from domestic abuse by Michael Brown, the father of domestic violence and murder victim Clare Wood.  Clare had met her partner over Facebook and was unaware of his violent history against women, including harassment, threats and kidnapping at knifepoint.

Last year Theresa May agreed to open a ‘Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme’ to public consultation and is currently considering the responses.  Big Brother Watch have raised concerns over the scheme due to the need for far more detail on what “Clare’s Law” will mean in practice. Are the police going to disclose arrests or mere suspicion, despite someone never being convicted? We have a legal system based upon guilt needing to be proven in court and this should not be a means of bypassing that.

The scheme should also ensure that individuals have the right to access the information that is being held and disclosed regarding their previous convictions.  There is a genuine concern that this could become a bureaucratic nightmare of a similar nature to the current CRB system, with lives and reputations being tarnished for incorrect or irrelevant information being released.

The Home Office need to publish a very clear list of offences that will be disclosed to ensure consistency as well as guidance on how the police will assert that enquiries are genuine. Given existing difficulties in ensuring police and other public databases are not misused to infringe the privacy of law abiding citizens, this proposal needs to be very carefully managed or risks a serious burden on police forces and a threat to civil liberties.

The domestic violence charity Refuge have also raised concerns about the scheme.  Sandra Horley, chief executive, commented: “It is highly unlikely that Miss Wood was killed because the police didn’t inform her about her ex-partner’s violent history.  It is more likely that she was killed because the police did not respond to her emergency 999 call for help.

“We are at a loss to understand why the government is spending precious time and money –especially at a time of austerity – on this new scheme.  As the law stands, the public already have the right to ask and the police have the powers to disclose information about a man’s previous history.”