NCDV offers to assist police with non-DA protection orders
A police force is working with the justice ministry to revive a mailbox for family protection orders related to forced marriage and female genital mutilation (FGM). The NCDV may be able to help.
Norfolk Police introduced its service in 2018, with two officers collating the family protection orders and sending them to the relevant force. But the work was abandoned a year after its introduction because the task was resource intensive and the cost had to be met from the constabulary’s own budget, The Law Gazette reported.
But as the National Centre for Domestic Violence runs NCDV Assist, a database of current non-molestation and occupation orders for police forces in the UK, it would be very happy to add similar orders to its database at no charge, said CEO Mark Groves.
“We currently process around 10,000 non-molestation orders every year and, unless there are hidden obstacles, foresee no additional resource requirements to include forced marriage and FGM protection orders,” he added.
Mr Groves has written to lord chancellor Robert Buckland about the service.
Protection orders for forced marriage were introduced in 2008 and in 2015 for FGM. As of last June, a total of 2,149 forced marriage and 418 FGM protection orders had been made.
