VIOLENCE BY ANY OTHER NAME?

Back in September 2013, the Home Office commissioned HM Inspectorate of Constabulary for England and Wales to look at the way our Police Services deal with domestic violence.

The report by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has looked at how all 43 forces in England and Wales responded to domestic violence understandably does not make pleasant reading and contains some grim statistics.

It is time, I think to finally seperate the word ‘domestic’ from what is simply violence and to change the way offenders are dealt with. Serious consideration needs to be given to removing the reliance on initiating prosecution for the repeat offences from the victim to the Police Service, some preliminary work in this direction was done in Lambeth, by the Metropolitan Police Service in the 1990’s, but more work clearly needs to be done.  

While reform of the law in relation to domestic violence is long overdue, there has been some progress but we are continually confronted by grim statistics in relation to domestic violence. The HMIC report has criticised some aspects of the way both Gwent Police deals with domestic violence and the victims of domestic violence.  HMIC has accused Police forces of unacceptable weaknesses in relation to dealing with incidence of domestic violence and this despite domestic abuse being linked to 8% of crimes and police chiefs stating that abuse was a priority.

The HMIC investigation revealed that of some 600 domestic assault files, half did not include pictures of injuries - a standard piece of evidence for a prosecution. Police, the HMIC report noted, receive more than one million calls a year relating to domestic abuse and almost 58,000 victims - the vast majority of them women - were at risk of serious harm or murder.

The report stated that three women a fortnight were being killed by a partner or former partner and a third of all assaults recorded by the police related to domestic violence. In an exceptionally critical report, HMIC have said that chief police officers need to recognise that domestic abuse constitutes a major problem that demanded comparable resources and focus to those devoted to tackling other high volume crimes such as burglary.  The report noted that only eight out of 43 forces were responding well to domestic abuse.

HMIC noted that it had significant concerns about how Gwent Police responded to some victims of domestic violence, it noted where there had been improvements and made specific recommendations for improvement for Gwent Police. Historically our Police Services had a poor record when it came to dealing with domestic violence, with offences of violence in a domestic context being effectively written off. At the end of the day violence against a person, is violence against a person, the setting (‘domestic’ or otherwise) is irrelevant, it is an offence.

A QUESTION OF PRIORITIES

The Westminster government announced on Wednesday (8th September) that they would postpone the elections for Police Commissioners from May to November of 2012, something that will push up the costs of the implementation process by around £25m to a total of £75m. The Westminster Home Affairs Committee was told that the £25m additional cost of staging the elections in November would not come out of the existing police budgets and the Home Office was in discussions with the Treasury about where the money would come from.

The path towards elected Police Commissioners in England (and Wales) which are being brought in as part of the Police and Social Responsibility Bill, has not been smooth for the Con Dem Government. The plans have already been rejected once by the House of Lords (in May 2011), not to mention the refusal by the National Assembly (in Cardiff) to pass a Legislative Compliance Motion (LCM) and even the Association of Chief Police Officers have expressed their concerns.

Perhaps now is the time for the devolution of control of Policing and Justice, before we end up with a right old constitutional dogs breakfast. Interestingly enough the National Assembly, the Scottish Parliament or Northern Ireland Assembly had never previously refused to approve an LCM or its equivalent, at least until the National Assembly refused to approve it's LCM.

Now legally there is no reason why the Home Office cannot push on with the proposed legislation on Police and Crime Panels. The Westminster Parliament remains supreme in relation to areas of law-making which have been devolved. Yet, if the decision is made to push on regardless with legislation on a devolved field against the wishes of a devolved legislature will raise important issues relating to devolution and not just in relation to Wales but also in relation to both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Little appetite, interest or enthusiasm has been demonstrated one way or the other here in Wales for elected Police commissioners by the Welsh people or in truth their elected representatives. At a time when our police forces are preparing to deal with significant budget cuts, whatever the Welsh percentage of the £25 million pounds having to be spent, could be better spent on retain Police officers and civilian support staff and keeping more officers on the beat.

AN INTERMITENT SIGNAL

Whilst driving through the middle of Wales, dodging traffic for the Royal Welsh Show, I was trying to listen to the World at One (Radio 4) on in intermittent signal (due to a combination of geography, topography and rain) which was outlining the current situation / revelations in relation to the News of the World, News International and the Metropolitan Police. The more that comes out the worse it gets, what a tangled web of alleged questionable behaviour. One thing that is becoming much clearer in my mind is the realisation the the Metropolitan Police Service if only from a practical point of view is entirely unfit to run the enquiry into alleged corruption within its own ranks. I think that it's time for the Home Secretary to get a grip and draft in a Scottish Police Force to investigate whatever has been going on within the Metropolitan Police Service, before things get even more complicated than they already are and what few shreds of credibility are entirely blown away.

SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND...

Oddly enough I am not a constitutional anorak who gets exited by the minutiae of governance or even someone who goes out of their way to watch any of the political programmes (i.e. Question Time, Dragons Eye, The Sharp End, etc) - not because I am not interested in politics but largely because I am usually asleep by the time they come on or doing something significantly less boring.

Anyway, I digress, one of the things the Con Dems are pushing on with is the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Bill, which will introduce in England and Wales directly elected Police Chiefs who "would ensure that local policing activities meet the needs of the local community, help build confidence in the system and bring communities and the police together".

Now in truth this seems to be an odd thing to get worked up about (but plenty of people have built up a head of steam over it both here and over the bridge) especially as our police forces the effects of a 35% cut to the capital budgets of the Welsh Police Authorities (between 2010/2011 and 2011/2012. Anyway, that grim statistic aside, one of the last meaningful (if barely noticed) things accomplished in the last Assembly was for this idea to be thrown out.

It turns out (and at this point the constitutional anoraks get excited) that there is a convention (similar to the Sewel Convention which exists in relation to the Scottish Parliament) which means that the UK Westminster Government, via the Welsh Government, has to seek the agreement of the Assembly (via an Legislative Compliance Motion (or LCM), if a bill which is being put forward in the Westminster Parliament seeks to make a law that could have been made by the Assembly, in plain english if it seeks to make a law in an area that has been devolved to the Assembly.

This bill seeks to replace police authorities with Police Commissioners throughout England and Wales, and also has proposals to set up joint committees of local authorities in each police area (known as Police and Crime Panels) so that said elected Police Commissioners are subject to effective scrutiny. As the National Assembly (now Welsh Government) has the power to make law to provide for local authority joint committees to be established for particular purposes, hence the reason why an LCM is needed.

As the Assembly rejected an LCM in relation to this Bill, it's now down to the UK Westminster Government to decide how to respond. Westminster Government guidance to Whitehall Departments states, in the event that an LCM is not passed by the National Assembly, ‘the UK Government would, subject to collective agreement being secured, need to table an appropriate amendment removing the relevant provisions before the Bill reaches its final stage in the House of introduction (Westminster).’

Interestingly enough this is wholly unknown or new constitutional ground as the National Assembly, the Scottish Parliament or Northern Ireland Assembly has never previously refused to approve an LCM or its equivalent. Legally their is no reason why the Home Office cannot push on with the proposed legislation on Police and Crime Panels.

The Westminster Parliament remains supreme in relation to areas of law-making which have been devolved. Yet, if the decision is made to push on regardless with legislation on a devolved field against the wishes of a devolved legislature this would raise important issues relating to devolution not only in relation to Wales but also in relation to both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Of course the Westminster Government could always go along with the decision of the Welsh Government, duly amend its bill to retain the principle that Police Commissioners in Wales must be subject to local scrutiny, but leaving the fine detail of how scrutiny is to be carried out to Cardiff. The ball is in London's court so to speak - will we witness yet another potentially spectacular train wreck for David ("Call me Prime Minister") Cameron's failing Big Society or another quiet U-turn?