I made the following speech in relation the HMIC report that was brought to the States for debate.
Sir, I am going to keep what I have to say brief and focus on just 2 points.
Firstly, the inspectorate comment that in a small island environment there is a particularly high level of public expectation. This is true for law enforcement as it is for health and care, education and basically any service we provide.
And as I said earlier, issues can be magnified and people be quick to blame. Those on the receiving end understandably become defensive and can themselves deflect blame The desire to be open and transparent is then reduced, morale in the workforce is hit and issues are consequently hidden and the service doesn’t improve or can even get worse. The HMIC says that there are several areas for improvement, it does not say we have a failing service.
My second point covers just one aspect of the report – that related to domestic violence. I did read the report referenced in the footnote – Everyone’s Business: Improving the police response to domestic abuse, a report that goes back to 2013, incidentally. It states that not all police leaders are ensuring that domestic abuse is a priority in their forces, it is often a poor relation to other policing activity like acquisitive crime and serious organised crime. I have to say, that was the impression I got from this report too.
And on that, I on’t accept Deputy Green’s defence as to why he didn’t grill the previous Head of law enforcement on the recommendations. I think one of those questions could have been over that issue and to understand what his priorities had been.
Anyway, the report I just referred to states that the level of dometic abuse in the UK is shocking and is estimated to cost the 15.7bn a year. And if people think it’s not an issue here, they need to understand that locally, we have identified that 25% of referrals to the MASH are related to domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is an insidious crime that impacts the abused not just physically but mentally.
I therefore welcome that recommendation in the report that
By 31 January 2019, the head of BLE should carry out an evaluation of reported domestic violence incidents in the Bailiwick of Guernsey. Based on this data, the most appropriate agency should conduct an evaluation to establish whether DVPOs and DVPNs, if they had been available, would have provided valuable additional protection to victims. If the evaluation shows that they would, the Committee for Home Affairs should consider pursuing changes to legislation to enable their introduction as soon as possible thereafter.
We have a new BLE and I wish him well. It will be interesting to see if there will be greater focus on domestic violence, as well as also supporting the more vulnerable in our society, than there may have been to date. As far as HSC is concerned, we will be happy to help where we can. But can the President assure me that the evaluation work has begun and that her Committee will also be giving this a higher priority than has been the case to date.