Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the ability of local authorities to resource Domestic Abuse Related Death Reviews.

Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) offer a vital opportunity for national and local agencies, local communities and society as a whole to learn lessons from domestic abuse related deaths and treat every death as preventable.

The funding for DHRs is provided through the local government funding settlement and the Home Office is unable to provide specific guidance on how funding should be allocated locally.

However, whilst the Government is committed to the fundamental principle of the DHR process, we recognise that there is room for improvement in the way these reviews are currently conducted and the lessons applied.

The department recently ran a public consultation seeking views on a revised version of the statutory guidance which underpins DHRs and we will be carefully considering the findings to ensure that improvements are made.