Driving up standards in processing court orders
Court orders for victims of domestic abuse
Victims of domestic abuse can apply for protective measures, such as a civil injunction (a court order) that either protects them or their child from being harmed or threatened by the person who’s abused them (a Non-Molestation Order or NMO) or decides who can live in the family home or enter the surrounding area (an Occupation Order).
The conditions of these orders make clear that the perpetrator is not permitted to breach the Order, either directly or through a third party. For example, if a perpetrator uses a member of their family to contact the victim this constitutes a breach of the Order. If there is a Power of Arrest attached to the Order the police can arrest the perpetrator, and breach of a Non-Molestation Order is classed as a criminal offence. Serious or repeated breaches can lead to a custodial sentence.
Effective police work to tackle domestic abuse can prevent further offences from being committed; but providing protective powers to the police does not automatically mean that these powers will be used effectively. They must be embedded systemically, and across broader law enforcement work.
“A duty to protect”
In 2019, The Centre for Women’s Justice made a super complaint to His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS), raising concerns about the police use of protective measures in cases of violence against women and girls (VAWG). The super-complaint specifically addressed the police use of non-molestation orders, highlighting failures to arrest an individual who is in breach of an NMO.
HMICFRS collaborated with the College of Policing and the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on the subsequent investigation and conclusions, and their report was published in 2021 (and updated in 2022).
Their investigation found that police officers sometimes have problems accessing NMOs to check the provisions of the orders, including the power of arrest, to enable them to assess whether an order had been breached. Some officers reported that accessing NMOs was time-consuming. On some occasions officers couldn’t find information on the NMO – possibly due in part to delays between the NMO being issued at court to it being recorded on the database.
This finding is supported by research by Bates and Hester, who say the recording of NMOs is a problem and suggest that there is still a lack of systemic communication of NMOs to the police. Bates and Hester summarised that it is likely that police data is not capturing many cases where court orders are in place.
Examples cited in the HMICFRS report highlighted delays in the time it was taking police forces to process court orders and place them on the Police National Computer (PNC).
There were 12 recommendations made, which covered areas including improving how incidents were linked on force systems and ensuring operational information was recorded correctly and efficiently.
Improving the electronic link between family courts, the legal sector, and police
A pilot project in the north east facilitated the uploading of perpetrators and associated orders onto the Police National Database. Flags were also created on the PND relating to applicants (victims) or respondents (perpetrators) for these orders meaning there would be a searchable register and that expired orders would remain visible. If rolled out nationally, it will allow a searchable register of respondents, which does not currently exist.
Elsewhere across England, the WEPROTECT referral service is helping police forces to improve compliance in processing NMOs by reducing the time it takes for court orders to be uploaded to the PNC.
The ‘multi-agency coordination’ service ensures copies of court orders and statements of service are automatically uploaded to the secure, online WEPROTECT portal once they are granted. These documents are also sent electronically to the PNC team (Records Bureau) of the police forces that use WEPROTECT.
We would like to see further development of this digital communication between the family courts, legal sector, and police even further, by establishing a direct link with the PNC, so that civil orders and injunctions are more quickly and widely shared. In a briefing paper setting out her priorities for a new Government, the Domestic Abuse Commissioner includes “better connecting police and court systems on protection orders.” Only then will good local practice become a nationwide standard.
Georgie Morgan
Georgie joined techUK as the Justice and Emergency Services (JES) Programme Manager in March 2020, progressing to Head of Programme in January 2022.
Cinzia Miatto
Cinzia joined techUK in August 2023 as the Justice and Emergency Services (JES) Programme Manager.
Ella Gago-Brookes
Ella joined techUK in November 2023 as a Markets Team Assistant, supporting the Justice and Emergency Services, Central Government and Financial Services Programmes.
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Authors
Razi Hassan
Razi Hassan is co-founder, and direct of partnerships and communication for the Domestic Abuse (DA) Alliance.