Domestic Homicide Reviews
In 2004, with the passing of the Domestic Violence, Crimes and Victims Act, Community Safety Partnerships became responsible for undertaking Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) to establish what lessons need to be learnt with regard to the way local professionals and organisations work individually and together to safeguard victims.
We have a responsibility to publish all reports into DHR. These will be published below.
Domestic Homicide Review reports
Joint Domestic Homicide Review and independent mental health homicide investigation in January 2019, West Cumbria
This is a joint review which has been commissioned by NHS England NHS Improvement, and West Cumbria CSP. The Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is carried out in accordance with the statutory requirement set out in Section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
The independent investigation follows the NHS England Serious Incident Framework (March 2015)13 and Department of Health guidance on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights14 and the investigation of serious incidents in mental health services.
A domestic homicide review must, according to the Act, be a review ‘of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from suicide, violence, abuse or neglect by:
- A person to whom he was related or with whom he was or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
- A member of the same household as himself, held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death’
Associated documents
The full report and Action Plan can be downloaded below:
Domestic Homicide Review: Subject of the report, “Mary”, September 2019
This Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is carried out in accordance with the statutory requirement set out in Section 9 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
A domestic homicide review must, according to the Act, be a review ‘of the circumstances in which the death of a person aged 16 or over has, or appears to have, resulted from suicide, violence, abuse or neglect by:
A person to whom he was related or with whom he was or had been in an intimate personal relationship, or
A member of the same household as himself, held with a view to identifying the lessons to be learnt from the death’
This review has been undertaken in order that lessons can learned to better protect others in the future. The review was commissioned by West Cumbria Community Safety Partnership on receiving notification of the death of 'Mary' in circumstances which appeared to meet the criteria of section 9(3) of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004.
