Clare's Law
First implemented in England and Wales in 2014, the policy structure has since been adopted or proposed in various forms elsewhere in the United Kingdom as well as in Australia and Canada.
[2] Wood was divorced from Madeleine's father,[1] and had met her murderer and ex-boyfriend, 40 year old George Appleton,[3] on Facebook.
In the months leading up to her murder, Wood filed several police reports against Appleton[5] for behaviors including harassment, criminal damage, threats to kill, and sexual assault.
[6][7] A loophole in the Data Protection Act allowed domestic offenders to keep their prior criminal records confidential.
[10] In this connection, one commentator has noted that, given the GMP's failure, it is unclear whether Clare's Law alone would have prevented Wood's murder.
[11] Following Wood's death, her father campaigned to create legal means for police to warn potential targets of abuse of their partners' violent pasts.
[13][14] A 2014 report by His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary concluded that:The overall police response to victims of domestic abuse is not good enough.
From 2018–19,[c] 48 percent of adult female homicide victims in the United Kingdom were killed by a current or former domestic partner.
[16] Disclosure of information about a person by police raises privacy issues under English common law and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
[31] The province's Interpersonal Violence Disclosure Protocol (Clare's Law) Act received royal assent on 15 May 2019[32] and came into force on 29 June 2020.
[33] Under the Saskatchewan statute, a number of different parties have a 'right to ask', including 'the police, the person at risk, family members, medical professionals and shelter workers, among others'.
[37] In April 2021, Ontario New Democratic Party MPP Jennie Stevens introduced a version of Clare's Law under the title Bill 274, Intimate Partner Violence Disclosure Act.
[41] Clare's Law was adopted on International Women's Day (8 March) 2014 throughout England and Wales, after public consultation beginning in late 2011[42] and a pilot programme in selected areas.
[48] Before DVDS was adopted, police in England and Wales were able to disclose information about potential offenders to the public as a matter of discretion.
[49] DVDS provides guidance to the police in exercising their common law powers to warn the public about a potential threat, in the specific context of domestic abuse.
[53] DSDAS mirrors DVDS in many respects, including a 'right to ask' and 'power to tell,' allowing third-parties to ask Police Scotland to make disclosures to someone they feel may be at risk of domestic abuse.
[62] Refuge has spoken against Clare's Law on several occasions, suggesting that it does not address the root problems associated with intimate partner violence.
