Yesterday, we issued judicial review proceedings against the Home Secretary, Priti Patel MP, over the proposed inquiry into police perpetrated abuse. We had hoped to avoid this course of action, but have been forced to do so.
In October, Ms Patel rightly called for a public inquiry into the “unimaginable failings in policing” which led to the horrific actions of PC Wayne Couzens. She stated that: “there will be an inquiry to give the independent oversight needed to ensure something like this can never happen again.”
CWJ and many front-line organisations working against male violence against women and girls have been highlighting the issue of police perpetrated abuse for many years. As a sector, we welcomed the Home Secretary’s announcement – indeed we were relieved it was going to be examined after the Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s inadequate response. Commissioner Dick implied that Wayne Couzens was an isolated police offender, a one-off “bad’un.” CWJ knows this to be untrue because we have been approached by many women sharing their stories of not only being abused by police officers, but also how poorly forces deal with the complaints.
However that initial relief has given way to concern. After the announcement, details of the proposed inquiry were set out. It was immediately obvious that they are not fit for purpose: they will simply fail to achieve what the Home Secretary says she wants to achieve. In particular, the inquiry is non-statutory meaning that it will not have the much needed powers to compel police witnesses, order disclosure of evidence or offer protections to victims and whistleblowers.
It was also announced that the 2-stage inquiry would focus on the conduct of Wayne Couzens in the first part and the second part would only examine issues that arose from that. To be clear, we wholeheartedly support an independent investigation into what happened with Wayne Couzens – Sarah Everard’s family deserve that at the very least. However there are hundreds, if not thousands of victims of police perpetrated violence. To view this issue through the lens of Wayne Cozens alone, means the opportunity to fix the systemic issues that leave women vulnerable to these officers, will be missed. For example, disabled women and minoritised ethnic women have even worse outcome when they report abuse – this needs to form part of the inquiry.
We tried to deal with the matter without resorting to litigation. On 15 October 2021, we wrote informally to the Home Secretary, explaining why her approach was wrong and asking her to change course. We set out pages to highlight the context and importance of getting this inquiry right. We now publish that original letter and annex.
She didn’t respond. She didn’t even respond after we set out all the organisations who supported our calls. As such, after 3 weeks we sent a formal letter before claim for judicial review, confirming that we would go to court if necessary, but hoped that she would instead engage with us. We are still waiting for a full response. We have been told we will receive such a response tomorrow, but given that time is running out, with the agreement of her lawyers, we have issued the claim in the High Court today. While we are willing to go to trial, we still hope a resolution can be found without having to. If she is serious about ensuring “nothing like this can ever happen again,” she needs engage with the issues we have raised and focus on resolving this quickly. Women shouldn’t have to wait any longer.