More than 450 people concerned about domestic violence have asked Sussex Police to check if their partner has been abusive in the past.
A further 233 have asked for the same information on behalf of a friend or family member.
The figures were shared during a performance and accountability meeting with Police & Crime Commissioner Katy Bourne on Friday (June 17).
The information was requested during 2021/22 under Clare’s Law, also known as the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme.
Deputy Chief Constable Julia Chapman told Mrs Bourne that a total of 701 applications were made – an increase of 28 per cent on the previous year – 468 from people in a relationship.
DCC Julia Chapman. Image: Sussex Police
The requests resulted in information being disclosed 274 times – 189 under ‘right to ask’ rules for people in the relationship, and 85 under ‘right to know’ rules for inquiries from a third party.
Ms Chapman said:
“We have strict criteria as to whether we can disclose or not.
“We will look at whether they have a history of domestic violence, whether they’ve got convictions for that, whether there’s any intelligence that even if they haven’t been convicted there’s concerns about behaviour.”
She added:
“People are asking with good cause and it’s really positive that we are able to alert them that actually they may be at risk of some harm if they continue with that relationship.”
Mrs Bourne raised concerns that around 24 per cent of the requests submitted under Clare’s Law were taking longer than 35 days to process.
Ms Chapman explained that the process was often rather ‘involved’.
It included putting the request to a multi-agency panel to consider whether it was appropriate to share the information.
Then the results had to be shared face-to-face with the person who made the request.
Ms Chapman added that the force also had to tell the ‘perpetrator’ that the information about them had been asked for.
Domestic abuse represents 16 per cent of all recorded crime across England and Wales.
Among the work being carried out by Sussex Police to try to address the problem has been the setting up of two programmes to help change the behaviour of abusers.
They were started in April 2021 and so far 71 people have taken part, with 51 still going through the programmes.
While it’s still early days, the team responsible for the programmes was recognised earlier this year with a silver award for community focus in the Public Sector Transformation Awards.
Ms Chapman said:
“It really is innovative work and we look forward to seeing tangible results as we go forward.”
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