Review of 'appalling' police failures complete

Wiltshire Police has now concluded its urgent review

More than 30 failures were made by police over a domestic abuse disclosure scheme.

Wiltshire Police has finished its review into 3,778 disclosure requests made under Clare's Law since 2015, following a "catastrophic service failure".

Under the law, people can apply to police for information about someone who may pose a risk.

Chief Constable Catherine Roper said the force had "let people down" and she was "appalled that this ever happened".

Wiltshire Police has assessed all of the Clare's Law applications made to them between April 2015 and August 2023 and found 33 failures.

Chief Constable Catherine Roper has apologised

This followed a voluntary referral to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) regarding concerns linked to disclosures made under the scheme by one member of police staff.

Earlier this year, the force admitted two people had come to harm due to its failures under the scheme.

Of the other failures, police believe 14 were administrative failures and 17 were service failures, for example where officers should have disclosed and did not or where inadequate research was done.

'Completely unacceptable'

Chief Constable Roper said: “Whilst I hope our communities will take some reassurance from the fact we’ve now reviewed all of these applications, we should never forget that people were put at risk due to our failures.

“We let people down and we now know that our failures may have contributed to at least two people being harmed.

"This is completely unacceptable and I remain appalled that this ever happened.

“I know we have let you down and caused additional anxiety, but I ask again for your trust and urge you to come forward if you have any concerns or information regarding people at risk of domestic abuse."

She added that extra resources and scrutiny had been put in place "to ensure this important service is delivered in the right way".

The force has now made a total of five referrals to the IOPC (including the initial referral) which are being investigated.

Two are linked to failures where harm has been caused, one linked to an admin failure and the final referral relates to the organisational response of two previous IOPC referrals involving a staff member in 2019 and 2020.

The member of police staff remains suspended from the force.