The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has acknowledged the publication of the third Criminal Justice Inspection Northern Ireland (CJI) review into the implementation of Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (NI) 2021.

Inspectors reported positive progress in increasing criminal justice system-wide awareness of domestic abuse as a specific offence, while also recognising the difficult challenges officers routinely face when responding to domestic abuse-related cases.

Detective Chief Superintendent Zoe McKee, Head of Public Protection Branch, said: "We continue to work with our partner agencies in the criminal justice system to ensure that we deliver a service that meets the needs and expectations of all victims and witnesses.

"We welcome the findings and the recommendations of the report. As an organisation, we have already commenced a body of work to ensure the voices of children who are impacted by domestic abuse cases are clearly heard and feature in investigations.

"This is year three of our delivery of Part 1 of the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (NI) 2021, which saw us equipped with new legislative tools to target those who perpetrate domestic abuse and protect the most vulnerable.

"Anything we can do to better safeguard victims and children who are impacted by domestic abuse, will be a priority." Detective Chief Superintendent McKee continued: "We have delivered specialised training in partnership with Women's Aid – which has a focus on children as victims of domestic abuse cases and the new legislation that holds perpetrators to account.

"Officers from across different departments within the Police Service have attended a series of awareness sessions to ensure they have the required awareness and confidence that they need when dealing with such cases.

"We're also working with our IT systems internally to help develop and implement a technical solution that assists officers in seamlessly adding child aggravators to case files.

"Training programmes for our custody sergeants have also been developed to ensure child aggravator awareness is captured on our internal systems prior to their disposal.

"We also continue to work with colleagues in the Public Prosecution Service to review and improve processes relating to victims, including developing a robust quality assurance process to monitor the appropriate use of aggravators.

"Domestic abuse remains a Service priority and we are fully committed to delivering for victims and bringing offenders to justice."

Anyone experiencing domestic abuse can contact police on 101 for non-emergencies, or call 999 in an emergency. Reports can also be made online via www.psni.police.uk/makeareport/ or anonymously through Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or at crimestoppers-uk.org/.