Wiltshire Police's Clare's Law 'management failures' investigated

Police and Crime Commissioner Philip Wilkinson said he was clear a failure of management occurred

Several levels of management are being investigated for failures that may have left thousands of women at increased risk of domestic violence.

Wiltshire Police launched an urgent review in October into the way it handled disclosure requests under Clare's Law and suspended one person.

The Police and Crime Commissioner said they are now "looking at the first, second, third line of management".

The force has also been asked to review its handling of Sarah's Law requests.

Wiltshire Police referred itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct - a government watchdog - after it emerged as many as 3,500 people, mostly women, might have been given wrong information after they made applications for information under Clare's Law.

Clare's Law lets people request information on any history of violence of partners, while Sarah's Law allows people to request information about a specific adult and the specific child or children they spend time with.

Speaking at a meeting of the Police and Crime Panel on Thursday, PCC Philip Wilkinson said "a failure of management occurred", the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

The PCC said a very robust investigation is taking place

Mr Wilkinson told councillors his office is doing all it can to investigate and eliminate the management failures and that the force's complaints procedures have been changed to prevent recurrence.

"We are looking at the first, second, third line of management of the individual that has been suspended," he said.

"There is a very robust investigation and we will make sure that nothing like this can ever happen again," he added.

He said the office of the Police and Crime Commissioner is "now triaging complaints as a first step - before they were going to the police".

"It should mean that we notice an issue like this much quicker," he added.

'Incredibly concerned'

Chippenham councillor Ross Henning said he was "incredibly concerned" this was not picked up in the PEEL [police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy] inspection process.

Mr Wilkinson said: "It should have been picked up. There was a failure of management and that is what we need to sort out."

Co-opted member of the panel Denisa Ahmet asked the PCC to get the police to also review its handling of requests under Sarah's Law.

"Now this has come to light I think we need to review what happened to applications made under Sarah's law as well," he said.

The chief executive of the PCC's office, Naji Darwish, said the same team handled inquiries under both laws and was under review.