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You wrote:
Hello I would like your freedom of information request about domestic abuse honour based abuse and child sex abuse and grooming please from 1996 to 2024 please thank you
Clarification received 26th March 2024: so basically I would like information on all of those topics states and the time periods stated please under the freedom of information request. All information of your policies in those topics and also dates please. Policies you had for those crimes how to deal with them your forces policies on how to deal with all of them please.
Our response:
I have listed policies that we are able to provide below, please see these attached within my email.
Domestic Abuse.
• Standing Order 136 - Domestic Disputes and Victims of Domestic Violence - this was put in place in 1991; we do not have anything that indicates that any amendments were made to this policy between 1991 to 2000. This is the policy that would still have been in use in 1996.
• Domestic Violence - A Positive Response Policy 2000 – as far as I have been able to ascertain this was in place from August 2000 until September 2008.
• Domestic Violence Court Injunctions and Orders Policy 2000 – as far as I have been able to ascertain this was in place from August 2000 until September 2008.
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v1.3 – NB: the version number on this document is a bit misleading as there was no v1.1 or 1.2 (they were draft documents that were published as v1.3). This policy was in place from September 2008 until November 2013.
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v2.0 – put in place in November 2013, archived June 2015
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v3.0 – put in place in June 2015, archived September 2019
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v4.0– put in place in September 2019, archived August 2021
• Telephone response to DA Covid-19 Pandemic Policy V1.0
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v5.0 – put in place in August 2021, archived August 2022
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v6.0 – put in place in August 2022, archived November 2022
• Domestic Abuse Policy and Procedure v7.0 – Current policy.
Child Sexual Abuse and Grooming.
Prior to 2015 there was no separate child sexual abuse policies. Sexual abuse was considered to be a part of child abuse. Prior to 2022 there was no policy specifically referring to grooming. I have therefore included the child abuse policies in place during the period requested.
• Standing Order 52 - Child Protection Policy – This was put in place in 1992; we do not have anything that indicates that any amendments were made to this policy between 1992 to 2000. This is the policy that would still have been in use in 1996.
• Child Abuse Policy v1.0 - put in place in (approximately) 2004, archived in 2012
• Child Abuse Policy v2.0 - put in place June 2012, archived July 2013
• Child Protection Policy v3.0 - put in place July 2013, archived March 2014.
• Child Abuse Policy v1.0 2022 – Current policy put in place January 2022 (aligned to the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Child Abuse and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Child Sexual Exploitation – replaced the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Child Abuse as Force policy).
• Child Internet Exploitation Team March 22, V1.0
Honour Based Abuse.
Wiltshire Police did not have any policy on honour-based abuse prior to March 2015.
• Honour Based Abuse (HBV) Policy v1.0 put in place March 2015, archived October 2018
• Honour Based Abuse (HBV) Policy v2.0 put in place October 2018, archived February 2022.
Some of the information you are requesting, specifically the most recent/current honour-based abuse document and the child abuse policy for the time period 2014 – 2022 are exempt by virtue of Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Information accessible to applicant by other means.
The following links will direct you to the policies you have requested:
• Honour-based abuse policy V3.0, published February 2022: Honour Based Abuse (HBV) Policy (wiltshire.police.uk)
• Child sexual abuse and grooming. From March 2014 to January 2022, Wiltshire Police adopted the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Child Abuse: Investigating child abuse and safeguarding children | College of Policing and the College of Policing Authorised Professional Practice on Child Sexual Exploitation as Force policy: Responding to child sexual exploitation | College of Policing
Section 17 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires Wiltshire Police, when refusing to provide such information (because the information is exempt) to provide you the applicant with a notice which: (a) states that fact, (b) specifies the exemption in question and (c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.
The exemption applicable to the information requested is:
Section 21 - Information Accessible to the Applicant by Other Means
In accordance with section 17 of the Act, this letter represents a partial refusal notice for this particular request.