Domestic Violence Disclosure Schemes (DVDS) were rolled out across England and Wales in 2014 following a high-profile public campaign for their introduction after the murder of Clare Wood in 2009 (hence Clare’s Law) by her partner who was found to have a history of violence unknown to her. Such schemes comprise two elements: a right to ask (a request made by any member of the public for information about whether a person has a history of violence) and a right to know (police proactively requesting disclosure of information to protect a ‘high risk’ victim from harm from their partner).The Domestic Abuse Bill (2019) plans to put these schemes on a statutory footing. Yet the efficacy of such schemes is highly contested and whilst some work has examined the principles underpinning them (Fitz-Gibbon and Walklate, 2016) and other work has explored practitioner’s views of them (Duggan, 2018) with the exception of work in NSW, Australia there no research to date exploring the victim/survivors perceptions and/or experiences of accessing DVDS. This project, conceived with the support of Women’s Aid, will fill this knowledge gap and inform the further development of such schemes in England and Wales and internationally.

The project will involve conducting interviews with victim/ survivors from across the UK who have had experience of Claire’s Law (via right to ask or know routes). A key output of the project will be the development of a Clare’s law information booklet, leaflet and posters. The target audience for this will be victim/ survivors of domestic abuse and practitioners working with victims, including police officers. Informed by project findings, these materials will provide accessible information to victim/survivors about how to use Clare’s Law, what they will and will not find out when requesting information, potential pitfalls to be aware of and sources of support. They will also provide information to police and other practitioners about what victim/ survivors want to know when requesting information, possible actions they may take after requesting information and how they can be appropriately supported. These materials will be disseminated at a one-day conference hosted at Lancaster University.

The project will start in August 2020.