Policy paper

Homicide reviews: Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 factsheet

Updated 20 August 2022

1. What has been introduced?

The Act allows for a requirement to be placed on the police, local authorities, clinical commissioning groups in England and local health boards in Wales to carry out a review into the circumstances of certain homicides where the victim was aged 18 or over, and the events surrounding their death involved, or were likely to have involved the use of an offensive weapon.

The purpose of the review is to identify the lessons to be learnt from the death, to consider whether any action should be taken as a result, and to share the outcome. Local and national implementation of these lessons and any such actions are intended to help tackle homicide and serious violence.

2. How are we going to do it?

The Act makes provisions for the establishment and conduct of offensive weapons homicide reviews into the circumstances of certain homicides where the victim was aged 18 or over and the events surrounding their death involved or were likely to have involved the use of an offensive weapon.

The provisions will place a duty on the relevant chief officers of police, local authorities, and clinical commissioning groups (in England) or local health boards (in Wales) to consider whether the criteria for an offensive weapons homicide review have been met and if so to conduct the review. Regulations made by the Secretary of State will specify which authorities are subject to the duty in particular cases, for example, when the relevant authorities are those for the area where the homicide occurred or is likely to have occurred.

The criteria to be satisfied before a review is required will be specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State. Where a review of certain homicides is already required by existing legislation (such as a domestic homicide review) an offensive weapons homicide review will not be required.

The Home Office will establish a new non-statutory Oversight Board to monitor implementation of the findings from these homicide reviews, and to share the lessons nationally.

We have co-designed these new reviews with local partners and practitioners to ensure we draw on the experience of existing homicide reviews. The reviews will be piloted in specified areas of London, West Midlands and Wales and a report on the operation of this pilot will be laid before Parliament before these new homicide reviews can be rolled out nationally.

The Act enables the Secretary of State to amend the types of homicide which qualify for one of these reviews. This power will allow homicides that do not involve offensive weapons to be subject to a review if it is considered in future that this would be helpful in tackling other types of homicide.

3. Background

Every homicide is a tragedy, and the Government wants to do all it can to prevent them and tackle serious violence.

Homicide has risen by about a third between 2014/15 and 2018/19 and has become the fourth leading cause of death for men aged 20-34 (behind suicide, drug overdoses and car accidents). The cost of homicide is significant and is annually estimated to be more than £2.5bn.

Homicides involving offensive weapons make up a large and growing proportion of all homicides – analysis suggests 354 of 732 homicides in 2019. We are concerned that many of these homicides are not currently formally reviewed by multi-agency partners to rapidly learn and share lessons; in the way that happens when a person aged under 18 dies, a vulnerable adult dies, a person dies due to domestic violence, or someone in receipt of mental health care commits homicide.

Of the 732 offences initially recorded as homicides in 2019, we estimate that 510 did not meet the criteria for an existing review, and that half of the unreviewed homicides involved an offensive weapon (251).

A new requirement to review certain adult homicides (aged 18 and over) involving offensive weapons is intended to assist in learning lessons by identifying points of failure to protect or intervene. It is also intended to allow review partners to identify trends in homicide and increase knowledge of how the threat from serious violence is evolving, allowing for stronger policy interventions.

4. Frequently Asked Questions

4.1 Why does the scope of the reviews only cover homicides involving offensive weapons?

Homicide reviews already take place in a number of circumstances—including when a child dies, a vulnerable adult dies, or when the death occurs in a domestic setting. Yet homicides involving serious violence and offensive weapons make up a large and growing proportion of all homicides.

The number of knife and offensive weapon possession offenders cautioned or convicted increased by 15 per cent between the year ending March 2017 and the year ending March 2020. And we estimate that offensive weapons are involved in approximately half of homicides not currently subject to an existing review.

Focusing these new reviews on offensive weapons is intended to help tackle the most serious and violent forms of homicide. They also aim to help build up local and national knowledge to tackle gangs involved in drugs and country lines activities, which often involve offensive weapons.

4.2 Who will pay for offensive weapons homicide reviews?

The Home Office will provide funding for the relevant review partners to cover the costs of offensive weapons homicide reviews during the pilot and will meet the cost of the Home Office Oversight Board.

Funding arrangements if the policy is rolled out nationally will be confirmed after the pilot.

4.3 How long will these reviews take?

The review process has been developed to allow for the reviews to be completed and published as quickly as possible to ensure that recommendations to safeguard and tackle homicide can be acted on and lives can be saved.

4.4 Which areas will pilot the offensive weapons homicide reviews?

Offensive weapons homicide reviews will be piloted in specified areas in London, the West Midlands and Wales. These regions were selected to ensure we test the reviews in both England and Wales, and in areas with different profiles of homicide and serious violence.

We are working with partners to agree which specific areas within these regions will pilot the reviews.

4.5 Will these reviews replace existing reviews, like domestic homicide reviews or child death reviews?

No. This is a new review designed to capture homicides not already subject to a formal review.

Where there is a homicide involving an offensive weapon which also meets the criteria for specified existing reviews, such as a domestic homicide, the duty to arrange an offensive weapons homicide review will not apply, to avoid duplication.

4.6 How will the Home Office Oversight Board work?

The Home Office Oversight Board will be a non-statutory committee composed of experts in safeguarding, homicide, serious violence, and public protection who will oversee the local delivery of the offensive weapons homicide reviews. They will also consider whether lessons from reviews are being acted upon and shared locally and nationally. Appointments to the Board will be made in due course.

4.7 Will guidance be provided on offensive weapons homicide reviews?

Draft statutory guidance was published in December 2021. A final draft of the guidance will be laid before Parliament in advance of the start of the pilot.