Domestic Homicide Review: A Guide for Bereaved Families

Part of: Hidden Forms of Abuse: Recognition, Protection, and Recovery

A domestic homicide review looks at the death of someone aged 16 or over that appears to have resulted from domestic abuse. Local services use it to learn lessons that could protect other families. Since 15 September 2026 the review in England and Wales has a new legal name, a domestic abuse related death review, under a new section 8A of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004, inserted by the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, s.19.

If someone you love has died, this guide explains what the review is, who runs it and how your family can take part. It also covers the question that often matters most in the weeks after a death: who will care for the children, and which orders the family court can make. For the wider picture on protection from abuse, see our non-molestation order guide.

If you or the children are in danger now, call 999. Our list of domestic abuse helplines covers support for anyone affected by abuse. After a death, the Home Office leaflet for families also lists AAFDA (Advocacy After Fatal Domestic Abuse) and Victim Support’s National Homicide Service.

Has the council written to you about a review, or are the children now living with you? You can book a free initial consultation to talk through the children’s position.

What is a domestic homicide review?

It is a multi-agency review of how a person aged 16 or over came to die, where the death has, or appears to have, resulted from domestic abuse. It covers murder and manslaughter, and also suicide, neglect and unexplained deaths where the person had experienced domestic abuse (statutory guidance 2026, paras 2.1 and 2.2).

“Domestic abuse” has the meaning in the Domestic Abuse Act 2021, s.1. Both people must be 16 or over and personally connected, for example as partners, former partners or relatives. The abuse can be physical violence, controlling or coercive behaviour, economic abuse or emotional abuse.

When a child under 16 dies, a different process applies, usually a child death review or a child safeguarding practice review (statutory guidance, introduction, note 2). In Wales, the review runs through the Welsh Government’s Single Unified Safeguarding Review.

Why is it now called a domestic abuse related death review?

The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 renamed it to reflect the range of deaths it covers, including suicides and unexplained deaths as well as homicides. The new name took effect on 15 September 2026 (SI 2026/1009, reg. 2).

The new guidance applies where the local Community Safety Partnership heard about the death after that date. A review that started earlier may continue under the old guidance (statutory guidance 2026, introduction). So you may hear both names, and many older reports in the Home Office domestic homicide review library still use the old one. The library warns that some reports contain distressing detail, so you may want someone with you if you read one.

Who decides whether there will be a review, and who leads it?

The local Community Safety Partnership decides, after a scoping review (statutory guidance 2026, paras 4.1 and 4.2). An independent chair then leads the review with a panel from local statutory and voluntary bodies, and nobody directly involved in the case sits on it (Home Office leaflet for family members).

The police usually tell the partnership about a death. A family member can do so too, ideally by email so that the message carries a date (statutory guidance 2026, paras 3.1 to 3.3). The partnership should then tell you about the scoping review, ask whether you think a full review is needed and offer you independent advocacy (para 4.4).

Sometimes the partnership decides against a full review. The Home Office Quality Assurance Board then checks that decision and aims to reply within 8 weeks (para 4.16). If the board recommends a review and the partnership still refuses, the Home Secretary can direct one (para 4.17; DVCVA 2004, s.8A(2)). The partnership should not tell you there will be no review until that process has finished (para 4.15).

How can the family take part in the review?

You can share what you know in writing, by recording, by phone or at a meeting. The meeting does not take place in a court, nobody asks you to speak under oath, and the choice to take part is yours (Home Office leaflet for family members).

The guidance treats the family as a key stakeholder. Relatives often know about abuse that no agency ever heard about (statutory guidance 2026, para 7.12). It sets ten requirements for involving family and friends (Figure 3). Among them, you should:

• get the Home Office leaflet and a referral to an independent advocacy service;
• hear from the chair early, including how the review will use and anonymise what you say;
• have time to comment on the draft terms of reference;
• have the chance to attend a panel meeting, or to speak to the chair alone;
• agree how often the chair updates you;
• see the full draft report before it goes to the Home Office, with any disagreement written into the report.

Children can take part too, with specialist support and at their own pace. The law recognises them as victims of domestic abuse in their own right (statutory guidance, para 6.10). If you care for the children, ask the chair how the domestic homicide review will hear their voice, and what support it will offer them first.

How long does a domestic homicide review take?

There is no fixed timescale. Much depends on other proceedings, especially any criminal case against the person accused (Home Office leaflet for family members).

The panel can pause the review if the police ask. It must then finish without delay once the criminal case ends (statutory guidance 2026, para 9.5). During a pause, the chair can gather agency reports but must not speak to potential witnesses, who may include family members (paras 9.6 and 9.7). An appeal against a conviction should not hold up the report (para 9.8). The inquest is separate, and the coroner may suspend it until the trial ends (para 10.1).

Will the report be published?

Usually yes, once the Home Office Quality Assurance Board approves it. The partnership then shares it with the family, sends it to the Home Office and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, and publishes it in the national library and on its own website (statutory guidance 2026, paras 14.1, 15.1 and 15.3).

Every domestic homicide review report uses pseudonyms rather than initials or numbers, although the family can ask for their loved one’s real first name to be used, and the partnership decides. The report gives only the month and year of events, and it leaves out a child’s sex and exact age (para 12.1). A few reports stay unpublished, in full or in part, where publication would put someone at risk. The partnership should ask the family about that first (paras 15.4 and 15.5). The report will not name you (Home Office leaflet).

Who will look after the children after a death from domestic abuse?

In the first days, children usually stay with someone the police and children’s services agree is safe. That is often a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, or a family friend. The family court gives the longer-term answer, and the review has no say in it.

Does the surviving parent keep parental responsibility?

Usually yes, even if the police have charged them with the death. The rules known as Jade’s Law would restrict it after a conviction for killing the other parent, but they are not yet in force (Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, s.18). Our guides to Jade’s Law and to restricting parental responsibility explain the routes that work today.

When the court decides contact with a parent accused of abuse, it treats domestic abuse as harmful to children. That includes children who saw or heard it (Practice Direction 12J, para 4).

When might children’s services go to court?

Only the council, or an authorised body such as the NSPCC, can apply for a care order. A court can make one only if a child is suffering, or likely to suffer, significant harm (Children Act 1989, s.31(2)). When a council in England places children with a relative quickly, it may use a regulation 24 kinship placement. Our guide to interim and final care orders covers the proceedings.

Did the parent who died name a guardian?

A parent with parental responsibility can appoint a guardian for after their death, in a document that is written, dated and signed. The appointment takes effect straight away only if no other parent with parental responsibility is left, or if a child arrangements order said the children lived with the parent who died and not also with the other parent. Where the surviving parent still holds parental responsibility, as often happens after a domestic homicide, the appointment waits until that changes (Children Act 1989, s.5(7) to (9)). That is why a named guardian may still need to apply for a special guardianship or child arrangements order. The court can also appoint a guardian where no parent with parental responsibility is left (s.5(1)).

For grandparents, our guide to grandparents’ rights when a parent dies goes into more detail, and so does our main guide to special guardianship orders.

Which orders can give the children a settled home?

Domestic homicide review checker: where your family stands

Three answers show what normally happens at your stage, what you can ask the review for and the decision about the children that needs advice. Your answers never leave this page, and the page stores nothing.

Domestic homicide review: frequently asked questions

General information about the law in England and Wales, not advice on your circumstances.