Domestic violence screening tool has ‘obvious’ problems, says Jess Phillips

A screening tool used to assess the support needs of domestic violence victims has “obvious problems”, according to the UK’s safeguarding minister.

Jess Phillips, minister for safeguarding and violence against women and girls, told the BBC she was reviewing systems to support victims, including the Dash (Domestic, Abuse, Stalking, Harassment and Honour-Based Violence) questionnaire, a 27-question tool used to assess risk levels.

Respondents are assessed on their answers and if they are deemed “high risk” they are referred to specialist care.

“Until I can replace it with something that does (work) we have to make the very best of the system that we have,” Ms Phillips said.

She said any risk assessment tool is “only as good as the person who is using it” and people were killed even when deemed to be at high risk.

“The grading system won’t immediately protect you,” she said.

“It is the systems that flow from those risk assessments that matter much, much, much more than the score.”

It comes after the Government announced new measures will be introduced to crack down on so-called “honour-based” abuse.

Honour-based abuse is motivated by the perception that a person has brought shame to themselves, their family or the community.

Related crimes include female genital mutilation, forced marriage and murder.

Campaigner Nour Norris, whose niece Raneem Oudeh, 22, and sister Khaola Saleem, 49, were murdered by Ms Oudeh’s ex-partner in 2018, said her loved ones “lost their lives because of the failing of the system”.

“Raneem was failed because her risk was downgraded to a tick box exercise,” Ms Norris told the BBC’s Today programme on Tuesday.

“That’s how simple it is, and we can’t allow victim safety to be dependent on which police force is going to answer their call.

“In other words, the system is just a tick box.

“In order for us to save lives like Raneem’s and many victims’ as we speak today, we must evolve the system and reform the police and change the justice system in many ways.

“This system has to be evolving all the time.”

In 2021, pregnant Fawziyah Javed, 31, died when she was pushed from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh by her husband after she decided to leave the marriage.

New statutory guidance and a legal definition of honour-based abuse will be brought in to help combat the crime, the Government has said.

The Home Office will pilot a study looking at how widespread this crime is, a community awareness campaign will be launched and teachers, police officers, social workers and healthcare professionals will receive more training under the new policies.

The measures have been backed by specialist organisations targeting honour-based abuse.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said: “All forms of honour-based abuse are devastating crimes that can shatter lives. There is no ‘honour’ in them.

“For too long, these offences have often been misunderstood by professionals, resulting in victims not getting the support they deserve.

“Make no mistake – we will use everything at our disposal to make sure perpetrators face justice and victims are protected.”