Clare's Law

• Clare's Law is an example of an individual campaign which affected policy making.
• Context:

  • Clare Wood had been physically and sexually abused by her ex boyfriend until he eventually set her body on fire. Her ex had a history of convictions for violence against women, one resulting in a prison sentence, which remained unknown to Clare. 
  • Created by Michael Brown, Clare’s father so that legal means could be introduced in order for potential victims of abuse to be informed about their partner’s past behaviour from the police. 
• Media/Methods:

  • Michael worked for 4 years alongside a chief radio reporter, gathering evidence, organising petitions and gaining support from charities, politicians and the media. 
• Success:

  2013 - police introduced a pilot scheme in four police areas 

  2014 - after the pilot’s success, the Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme (DVDS) was put in place across 43 police forces in England and Wales. 
• The DVDS:

  • the right to ask allows a member of the public to apply to the police to disclose information 
  • the right to know allows the police to disclose information to protect potential victims
• Success levels vary by area due to different levels of knowledge and training for the scheme in different forces. 

  e.g. Cumbria - police disclosed information in 96% of cases 

  Bedfordshire - police disclosed information in 7% of cases 
• In 2018, around 6,500 ‘right to ask’ requests were made and almost half of the requests were granted.