Essex Police, investigating Allison Pearson about X post, was worst ...

Essex Police, the force investigating Telegraph writer Allison Pearson, was failing women more than any other before it undertook a major review of its domestic abuse response.

Figures show Essex had the lowest rate of warnings about potentially abusive partners under Clare’s Law.

The law – named after Clare Wood, who was strangled by her ex-boyfriend in 2009 – gives people the right to ask police if a partner or ex-partner has a history of abusive behaviour.

It can be enacted in two ways: the Right to Ask and the Right to Know.

The Right to Ask allows a member of the public to ask about their own partner or that of a close friend or family member.

Under the Right to Know, police must consider every piece of intelligence concerning domestic abuse investigations that comes to them – and ask whether or not the victim has a right to be told that information.

Essex Police considers whether such a disclosure should be made for every domestic abuse incident of which they are made aware.

If they believe the victim has a Right to Know, then an internal application to pass on the intelligence is made.

The internal application triggers the police to proactively disclose information to protect a potential victim.

Essex Police had the lowest Right to Know rate in the country in the year ending in March 2023, figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show, disclosing information in just 6.84 per cent of all domestic violence cases.

The force also had the lowest Right to Ask rate in 2023 – 6.47 per cent. In comparison, Bedfordshire Police ranked highest at 58.7 per cent.

The rate of Right to Know disclosure in England and Wales has fallen in recent years, from 55.3 per cent in 2019 to 42.5 per cent in the year to March 2023, the figures show.

While the rate declined, the number of internal applications for Right to Know disclosures increased. There were 7,252 in 2019 and 17,925 in 2023 – a 147 per cent rise.

Meanwhile, the rate of Right to Ask disclosure fell from 40 per cent in 2019 to 35.8 per cent in the year to March 2023, figures show. There were 6,496 Right to ask applications, with members of the public requesting information, in 2019 and 27,419 in 2023 – a fourfold increase.

Det Supt Matt Cornish, who leads the force on domestic abuse, said he recognised Essex Police needed to do “more to support victims”.

Speaking earlier this year, he said the force undertook a “major review” of its domestic violence response in January 2023 to implement a new domestic violence risk assessment scheme. He said that Essex continues “to improve our response to domestic abuse and the management of domestic abuse perpetrators”.

Mr Cornish said: “As a part of this project, we updated our approach to domestic violence disclosure scheme (DVDS) disclosures; ensuring adherence to the new Home Office guidance, seeking to improve both the number of disclosures made and enhancing the content of those disclosures.

“This ensures we are now reaching even more potential victims of domestic abuse and giving them the information, they needed to make an informed decision.

“Our work around the DVDS aspect is backed by research led by Essex University’s Dr Kat Hadjimatheou, who also sits on the national DVDS working group.

“We recognised we needed to do more to support victims and potential victims of domestic abuse through the DVDS.

“Now, we have a specialist domestic abuse review team (Dart) of more than 20 officers focusing on these disclosures. We are making more disclosures and sharing more information than ever before.”

Dart began work on Aug 1 2023 and in the five months to the end of December 2023, they made 264 disclosures, which was 65.7 per cent of all processed applications (402).

From January to June 2024, Essex Police made 566 of these disclosures, which was 66.4 per cent of all applications (852).

The police must satisfy several tests before a decision to disclose is made under the disclosure scheme.

They will consider if the disclosure is necessary to protect the person from being the victim of a crime, if there is a pressing need for the disclosure, and if the interference with the perpetrator’s rights is necessary and proportionate for the prevention of crime.

Any decision to disclose under the scheme will be made based on the facts of each case, and the police can seek legal advice where necessary.

In July, a Channel 4 Dispatches documentary revealed that 93 per cent of car-related crimes in Thurrock, Essex, go without a single suspect being identified.