AQW 30940/22-27


Ms Claire Sugden
Independent
East Londonderry


Tabled Date: 11/09/2025
Answered On Date: 24/09/2025
Priority Written: No


Question:
To ask the Minister of Justice to outline (i) how the recommendations from Domestic Homicide Reviews are being implemented across relevant agencies; and (ii) what monitoring is in place to ensure they lead to change.


Answer:
I recognise that the learning arising from each Domestic Homicide Review (DHR) is invaluable, and I acknowledge the need for DHR recommendations to be effectively implemented.
Each DHR report includes agency recommendations, where the individual agencies involved have identified specific areas where their practices and responses could be improved. Each individual agency is responsible for implementing the recommendations directed to them and for ensuring that the necessary changes to their policies and practices are taken forward.
In addition to agency-specific recommendations, each DHR report also includes overarching recommendations made by the Independent Chair and multi-agency Panel. Given the complexities involved in such cases, these overarching recommendations are often made on a multi-agency basis and often fall to a number of agencies, working in partnership, to implement across many sectors including Health, Justice, Education and Housing.
My Department is not responsible for overseeing how recommendations outside of the justice sphere are implemented; that falls to each of the agencies respectively. However, it receives regular updates from agencies on progress against each action, in order to ensure that the multi-agency DHR Senior Oversight Forum is able to track and monitor progress against implementation.
Where recommendations have been made for my Department, these have been completed or are in progress and expected to be completed in the near future.
However, there has been some delay to the implementation of overarching, multi-agency recommendations. In order to address this, a multi-agency working group, chaired by PSNI, has been established to drive implementation of those recommendations which cut across organisational boundaries. This group brings together representatives from the key statutory partners to ensure that shared challenges are addressed collectively and that cross-cutting recommendations are implemented in a consistent and coordinated way. The group also provides a mechanism for monitoring progress and ensuring that the learning from Reviews is embedded across the system as a whole.