Joint plan to deliver justice for domestic abuse victims launched by police and prosecutors

The Domestic Abuse Joint Justice Plan (DA JJP) commits the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to “work together more cohesively” to build strong cases from the outset to get justice for victims and provide them with a consistent service of support.

The NPCC said insights gathered from operational police and prosecutors, commissioners and inspectorates, government departments, academic studies, victim groups and survivors have led to the actions laid out in this plan, which work to strengthen the current system and test new ways of working to better address domestic abuse offending.

This includes piloting the introduction of ‘case conversations’, bringing police and prosecutors together earlier to target reasonable lines of inquiry, address evidential concerns and develop early prosecution strategies.

“The DA JJP will drive a better understanding of the needs of victims focusing on patterns of behaviour so we can identify offenders who present the greatest threat,” said the NPCC.

Baljit Ubhey, CPS director of strategy and policy, said: “The DA JJP is about getting it right first time by bringing the expertise from both police and prosecutors to better recognise behaviour driven offending, and progress cases through the system to get justice for victims.

“It is about creating cultural change, working towards our shared goal of getting the right outcome for victims through a stronger, more coordinated approach.

“We have seen through our work to improve rape investigations and prosecutions that when we come together quicker to identify issues and reasonable lines of inquiry, we can build cases which result in guilty pleas or convictions at trial.

“Getting cases through the system quicker is vital to breaking the cycle of abuse and safeguard victims, and whilst there may be complex cases that take longer, we have seen that when we work together to build robust cases, a charge is authorised within one day.

“We know domestic abuse needs a system-wide approach; this joint commitment is a step in the right direction to improving victims’ experiences and better protecting them and their families while holding offenders to account.”

Assistant Commissioner Louisa Rolfe, NPCC lead for domestic abuse, said: “Domestic abuse is a devastating crime that can have a life-long impact on victims, and this is often exacerbated by their journey through the criminal justice system.

“Our people work incredibly hard every day to bring offenders of this despicable crime to justice, but we know there is still more work to do, and we are committed to achieving better, more victim-focused outcomes for them, which is why we are working with the CPS on this plan,

“As justice agencies, it is essential we work together to better safeguard victims and hold offenders to account.

“We want women and girls to feel safe and confident reporting any instances of abuse to the authorities. One of the ways we can reassure, and support victims is by ensuring that when they do come forward, swift action is taken to prevent any further harm.”

Actions set out in the DA JJP include:

• Testing the impact of more timely decision-making on charging. This pilot will establish more ambitious timeframes with proportionate action plans, on the day problem solving to set scope on achievable, reasonable lines of inquiries.
• Communicating at an early stage in high-harm, high-risk domestic abuse cases, considering protective orders from the outset and robustly pursuing those who breach bail conditions and protective orders, considering whether the behaviour amounts to a new offence.
• Developing a shared definition of high-risk, high-harm repeat offending and a cross-agency flagging system to identify offenders who present the greatest threat.
• Supporting victims by working together to develop a pilot that offers an enhanced service to high-risk and vulnerable victims, promoting best practice in victim safeguarding, and providing clear and consistent information to victims while making early assessments for protective orders and special measures applications.
• A local delivery toolkit to support delivery and provide direction to forces and Areas on how to implement the DA JJP. It emphasises the importance of working with local partners, particularly the specialist services and by-and-for organisations who provide invaluable support to victims.
• Enhancing governance and accountability with a new Domestic Abuse Implementation Board that will encourage cooperation and address cross-cutting issues. Locally, governance products will support police and CPS to work together, along with their local partners, to raise standards and to improve domestic abuse performance.

“All of this work is ultimately to improve victim experience, but also help to give victims the confidence to come forward so more domestic abuse cases are prosecuted where appropriate, while understanding not all victims want or will benefit from a criminal justice outcome,” said the NPCC.

“Swift and effective investigations and prosecutions are one of the ways we are contributing towards the Government’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls in the next decade.”

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said: “It is a sad reality that survivors of domestic abuse often feel extremely let down by the justice system, and with only 5.3 per cent of domestic abuse cases reported to the police resulting in a charge, and even less leading to a conviction, it isn’t surprising that they feel this way.

“Women’s Aid welcomes the much-needed DA JJP, launched in an attempt to transform the handling of domestic abuse cases, but worries that the plan focuses too heavily on the wrong things.

“The DA JJP talks about transforming the culture between Police and the CPS, and while this is important, it overlooks the deep-rooted and problematic cultural issues that these institutions have within themselves.

“Urgent action needs to be taken to end the culture of sexism and misogyny, that has been proven to exist in policing time and time again, as this is acting as a blockade to women and girls seeking justice.

“We know that only one in five women reporting abuse to the police. The lack of confidence in reporting, means that perpetrators are able to continue abuse with impunity. Women needs to know that when they take reports to the police, they are going to be treated appropriately and with the seriousness they deserve.”

She added: “For black and minoritised women, racism creates an additional barrier when it comes to reporting crimes, which is ultimately limiting their access to justice. Police forces must immediately accept Lady Angiolini’s recommendation to commit to being anti-sexist, anti-misogynist and anti-racist.

“The criminal justice system must work with organisations that centre the experiences of survivors and have sector-specific knowledge to help ensure that prosecution rates increase and that women’s faith in the system grows.

“The joint plan has an overt focus on ‘high risk’ victims and cases – a focus we have also seen from other statutory agencies. We know that professionals can misinterpret the risk indicators or not recognise their severity, which can result in a proportion of ‘high risk cases’ staying under the radar or being assessed as medium or standard risk. Women’s Aid has long recommended a needs-led approach that fully acknowledges the fluidity of risk and the impacts of coercive control.

“Women’s Aid are pleased to see that the commitments to work with specialist services and organisation have been made throughout the plan and look forward to working with both the Police and CPS to improve the justice outcomes for all survivors of domestic abuse.”