Annual Review of the Effectiveness of Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021- Year Two Progress Review

Domestic abuse in Northern Ireland by numbers:

In 2023-24, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) recorded 32,763 domestic abuse incidents and 19,954 domestic abuse crimes.  A further 15,298 incidents and 9,228 domestic abuse crimes were recorded between 1 April and 30 September 2024.  Each one of those represents at least one victim and, in many cases, their child, who had been affected by domestic abuse in Northern Ireland. In 2023-24 alone the numbers represents a domestic abuse incident occurring every 16 minutes.

Progress against recommendations:

The second annual Review of the Act found there was:

• Good progress – on two Operational Recommendations;
• Reasonable progress – on two Strategic and four Operational Recommendations;
• Insufficient progress – two Operational Recommendations; and
• No meaningful progress – on one Operational Recommendation Inspectors made in the first Review Report.

Encouraging developments:

The Inspection Team welcomed the actions taken by the Department of Justice (DoJ), the PSNI, the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland (PPS) and the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS).  Inspectors found evidence of:

• Cultural change in how domestic abuse is understood and addressed, especially by Police Officers and prosecutors;
• The development of an Information Sharing Agreement between the PSNI and the Education Authority for Operation Encompass (a safeguarding partnership that enables schools to offer immediate support to children experiencing domestic abuse);
• Reasonable progress towards the development of a joint Police Service and Public Prosecution Team approach to domestic abuse;
• DoJ work to raise awareness of statutory guidance on the Act within the criminal justice system;
• A PPS IT solution was under development to ensure the Section 15 aggravator* was applied to all relevant charges; and
• Advanced plans by PSNI to publish data on the use of the Section 15 aggravator*.

Areas requiring further progress:

Despite improvements, Inspectors found insufficient or no meaningful progress on three Operational Recommendations.  Further work is needed in the following areas:

• An evaluation of PSNI training on how children are considered in domestic abuse cases and additional training for Police Officers and staff within the PSNI Contact Management Centre on the approach to domestic abuse cases;
• Exploratory work to consider re-establishing the specialist Domestic Abuse Prosecutor role;
• Urgent collaborative efforts to ensure completeness and accuracy of recording of the impact of domestic abuse aggravators on sentencing at Court; and
• Further discussions with the Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland to align Operation Encompass with wider child safeguarding practices.

Conclusion:

As Northern Ireland marks three years since the legislation commenced in 2022, the Year Two Progress Review stresses the importance of sustained commitment and energy to build on positive progress and drive improvements where they are needed to combat domestic abuse and support victims.

Additionally, effective implementation of the Act aligns the wider goals of the new Programme for Government and Policing Plan, including making communities safer and ending violence against women and girls.

CJI Inspectors are preparing for the third annual Review, which will likely to include a return to reviewing PSNI and PPS case files to gather evidence and inform our assessment of the Act’s implementation and take a more in-depth look at data collection and reporting across the criminal justice system.

* The Section 15 Domestic Abuse aggravator provides for any other offence, other than the domestic abuse offence to be aggravated where it involves domestic abuse.