Domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms from early next year in the first step towards the government’s goal of halving violence against women and girls in a decade, the home secretary has said.
The advisers will make risk assessments on cases involving rape, domestic and sexual abuse claims to ensure that victims are referred to support services as quickly as possible, as part of an initiative to be announced by Yvette Cooper on Friday.
The move, which will begin as an initiative in targeted police forces, is meant to form part of “Raneem’s law”, in memory of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem, who were murdered by Raneem’s ex-husband in 2018.
There were 13 reports made to the police about concerns for Raneem’s safety, with no arrests made. On the night she was killed, she had rung 999 four times.
Cooper said: “Failure to understand the seriousness of domestic abuse costs lives and far too many have already been lost. That’s why introducing ‘Raneem’s Law’ in memory of Raneem and her mother, Khaola, is so vital – and has been a personal priority for me.
“Through an expert-led, practical police response we need to ensure that when victims and survivors of abuse have the courage to come forward it will be treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves.”
From November more domestic abusers will be ordered to stay away from their victims and face tougher sanctions if they fail to do so, through the launch of the new Domestic Abuse Protection Order pilot.
These will build on powers police already have to legally order abusers to not make contact with, or go within a certain distance of, the victim – but domestic abuse victims are only protected for up to 28 days.
The new orders will go further, with measures to make it a legal requirement for perpetrators to inform the police of any change in name or address, imposing electronic tagging and ordering assessments for behaviour change programmes. There will also be no maximum duration for these orders.
The orders will cover all forms of domestic abuse, including violence, stalking and controlling behaviour, and more agencies will be able to apply for them – not just the police and criminal courts but also family and civil courts, and third parties such as local authorities, charities and social services, with victims also able to apply directly for the order themselves.
Breaching one of these new orders will be a criminal offence, punishable by up to five years in prison.
Rape victims face as much as a three-year delay from reporting the crime to the end of their attackers’ trials.
In 2020, the government launched a five-year package of measures to make sure offenders of sexual violence are brought to justice and victims are properly supported.
It included fully resourcing specialist rape and serious sexual offences units with dedicated, highly trained prosecutors. The Guardian disclosed in October 2021 that two-fifths of police forces in England and Wales did not have specialist rape and serious sexual offence units.
The proportion of rape victims dropping out of cases before the police have charged a suspect has risen sharply – from 24.7% in 2016 to 42% in the year to March 2022. For serious sexual offences, the proportion has increased from 22.7% to 33.8% over the same period.
The number of rape suspects being charged has also dropped.
