Domestic abuse experts to be embedded in 999 control rooms

Domestic abuse specialists will be embedded in 999 control rooms in England and Wales as part of the government's pledge to halve violence against women and girls in a decade.

The measure is part of "Raneem's Law" in memory of Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khaola Saleem, who were murdered by Ms Oudeh's estranged husband in 2018.

The government also announced a new domestic abuse protection order pilot that will order more abusers to stay away from victims and impose tougher sanctions if they fail to do so.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said victims "need to know the police will be there for them" and if they come forward, any report "will be treated with the seriousness and urgency it deserves".

"Failure to understand the seriousness of domestic abuse costs lives and far too many have already been lost," Ms Cooper said.

The aim is for specialists with expertise in domestic abuse to be on hand in control rooms to ensure victims get a fast response from officers on the ground and are quickly referred to support services.

Referring to Ms Oudeh's case, Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, said the new measures looked "at the failings in cases like hers – and I wish I could say she was the only one – to try and make sure that we make the system that works better".

Almost 100 domestic abuse-related offences were recorded by police every hour on average last year, the government said.

Ms Oudeh married Janbaz Tarin, 21, in an Islamic ceremony, but broke up with him when she discovered he had a secret wife and children in Afghanistan.

The inquest heard he had stalked Ms Oudeh after their relationship broke down and even carved her name into his arm with a razor.

On the night Ms Oudeh and her mother were killed, Ms Oudeh made six 999 calls after Tarin struck her at a restaurant and followed the pair home, but officers failed to reach them in time.

In total, 13 reports were made to the police about concerns for her safety - but no arrests were made until Tarin, who had gone on the run after the murders, was arrested three days later.

An inquest found police errors "materially contributed" to their deaths. West Midlands Police has since apologised to the family.

Nour Norris, Ms Oudeh's aunt and Mrs Saleem's sister, said having domestic abuse specialists in control rooms would "save lives by making sure no warning signs are ignored, unlike in Raneem's story".

"Their suffering and the way the system failed them is something I will never forget," Ms Norris said. "What started as a quest for justice for my family became a mission to improve outcomes for all domestic abuse victims everywhere."

Janbaz Tarin, was jailed for a minimum of 32 years in December 2018, after admitting to the murders.

The scheme will be piloted in select police forces from early next year. Details on which forces are taking part in the pilot have not yet been announced.

Ms Phillips told BBC Breakfast that she expected the scheme to be in place in all 43 of the UK's police forces by the end of this parliament.

Asked why the scheme was not being rolled out in all forces from the start, the minister said the government launched the pilot to ensure the eventual national scheme was the "best system", and due to a lack of specialists.

"I can’t invent hundreds of specialists overnight, they have to be trained," Ms Phillips said.

"Those people have to be recruited, they have to be trained or they have to be backfilled. I’d liked it to have been done yesterday."

She added that only using civilian specialists would not change the policing culture around domestic abuse.

Ms Cooper described the new measures as "vital" and "a personal priority for me".

She told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg in January about her plans for the measures, which Labour also proposed in February.

Harriet Wistrich, founder of the Centre for Women's Justice, said that Ms Oudeh's calls to the police the night she was murdered "weren't seen as the risk that they represented".

But she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that this was "just one little part of the story, because Raneem was failed repeatedly by the police because they didn’t appreciate the nature of the abuse that they were dealing with".

While Ms Wistrich welcomed the pilot, she added: "What we really want to see is something permanent and sustained, that also carries with it proper accountability – so that when the police fail, they’re held to account."

In another effort to protect women and girls, the government also announced a new domestic abuse protection order pilot that will start in November.

Police already have the power to legally order abusers not to contact or go within a certain distance of victims for up to 28 days.

The pilot will introduce no maximum time limit for orders, impose electronic tagging of offenders and require perpetrators to notify police of any change in name or address.

The new orders will cover all forms of domestic abuse, including violence, stalking and controlling behaviour.

Breaching an order will be a criminal offence punishable by up to five years in prison.

Victims and other third parties such as charities will also be able to apply directly for an order, rather than having to rely on police and criminal courts.

The new domestic abuse protection orders will be piloted by officers in Greater Manchester Police, the Metropolitan Police (South London Borough Command Unit) and British Transport Police.

Refuge, the charity which supports survivors of domestic violence, welcomed the changes but called for "far more detail on how these plans will be implemented and how staff will be safely recruited, vetted and most importantly trained".

Refuge's interim chief executive Abigail Ampofo warned that police rarely act on breaches of existing protection orders, making them often "worth little more than the paper they are written on".

"We need a real sea change in internal policing culture and the police forces' response to domestic abuse overall," said Ms Ampofo.

Ms Wistrich noted that Ms Oudeh applied for a non-molestation order against Tarin, and said: "A lot of the laws are there, the problem is that they’re just not enforced or implemented."

Last week, more than 1,700 prisoners were released early to ease overcrowding, some of them yet to be fitted with an electronic tag - despite it being a condition of their release - due to a backlog of former inmates to process.

Those who are not tagged are able to act without being monitored - increasing the risk of reoffending and potential danger to the public.

Ms Phillips said she had spoken to the Ministry of Justice and had been assured that people who had been jailed for domestic abuse offences would be "prioritised" for receiving a tag.

The government also said that offenders jailed for violent offences with sentences of at least four years, sex offenders and domestic abusers were not eligible for early release.