Police have identified eight new failures in its service for domestic abuse victims.

The Wiltshire force has spent months carrying out a thorough review of more than 3,500 applications made under the Clare’s Law scheme between April 2015 and August 2023 after identifying critical failures in its service last October.

They announced in January that, so far, 25 failures had been discovered - including two that resulted in someone being harmed - and four referrals to the Independent Office for Police Conduct had been made.

On Wednesday, police confirmed that the full review of 3,778 Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme applications has now concluded and, since their last update, eight further failings have been found and one more referral to the IOPC has been made.

Altogether, 33 failures – less than one per cent of the applications reviewed – have been identified.

Two of these resulted in people being harmed, 14 were administrative failures and 17 were service failures (i.e. where police should have disclosed and didn’t, or where inadequate research was done).

As previously reported, one member of police staff remains suspended from the Force and is subject of an independent conduct investigation by the IOPC Wiltshire Police has made a total of five referrals to the IOPC (including the initial referral regarding concerns linked to disclosures made under the scheme by one member of Wiltshire Police staff), which they are independently investigating.

Two are linked to failures where harm has been caused, one is linked to an admin failure, and the final referral relates to the organisational response of two previous IOPC referrals involving the same individual in 2019 and 2020.

At its height, approximately 45 members of staff were moved into the review team and supported by a large number of other officers from across the force.

The county’s police force has committed to continue using an appropriate level of resourcing on this review until the end of May.

Chief Constable Catherine Roper said: “Whilst I hope our communities will take some reassurance from the fact we’ve now reviewed all of these applications, we should never forget that people were put at risk due to our failures.

“We let people down and we now know that our failures may have contributed to at least two people being harmed. This is completely unacceptable and I remain appalled that this ever happened.

“As soon as I was made aware of these failures, I ensured dedicated resources were put in place to work to understand where we are failed, who might be at risk as a result of these failures and the urgent action we needed to take.

“The completion of the 3,778 risk assessments ensured that we identified the people who required our immediate support.

“There are a small number of people who we’ve been unable to contact or where contacting them directly might not have been safe or appropriate. We will continue to attempt contact where safe to do so.

“I know we have let you down and caused additional anxiety, but I ask again for your trust and urge you to come forward if you have any concerns or information regarding people at risk of domestic abuse.

“We’ve put in place additional resources and scrutiny to ensure this important service is delivered in the right way.”

The IOPC’s independent investigation is ongoing, and Wiltshire Police has been in regular contact with them to update them on the progress of its review.

Anyone who is considering making a new application under Clare’s Law can request this information in the usual way by visiting www.wiltshire.police.uk

If anyone feels they are in immediate danger, call police on 999.