Statutory reviews and the homicide investigation

Serious Case Reviews (SCR) and Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR) have become an established part of the wider safeguarding and public protection procedures used by the police and partner agencies. They help them to quickly understand why a serious injury or death has occurred, and so enable them to protect others who may be vulnerable due to the same circumstances as well as improving services more generally. To be effective, they have to examine the detail of each case in a timely manner. This often means that they are carried out at the same time as a criminal investigation arising out of the same incident and rely on the same sources for information. Naturally, this can cause some concern to SIOs who fear that they may compromise evidence or interfere in the investigation in other ways.