Victim Not Suspect

The Watch

Monitor 11 · Phase two, 17 of 43 forces

Raneem's Law Monitor

Raneem's Law places independent domestic abuse specialists inside police force control rooms to advise on live calls, review risk assessments and support call handlers. It was established after the murders of Raneem Oudeh and her mother Khaola Saleem in Solihull in August 2018, where an inquest jury found that failures by West Midlands Police materially contributed to both deaths. VNS tracks it because it is one of the few policing commitments with a named list of forces and a dated target, which makes it checkable in a way most commitments are not.

Last updated 9 August 2026

Forces with specialists in place, June 2026
17 of 43
Stated deadline for all forces in England and Wales
2029
Calls reviewed in West Midlands alone by July 2026
7,700+
Published outcome measures
0

What it is, and what it is not

Raneem's Law is a Home Office funded programme, not legislation. Grants are held by Police and Crime Commissioners and delivered by third sector providers, so what a force receives depends on local commissioning. West Midlands Police has described it on its own website as legislation that came into force, which is not accurate. GOV.UK consistently describes it as a measure and an initiative.

  1. 27 Aug 2018

    Raneem Oudeh and Khaola Saleem murdered in Solihull

  2. Nov 2022

    Inquest jury finds West Midlands Police failures materially contributed to both deaths

  3. 21 Feb 2025

    First specialists placed in control rooms. West Midlands dates its own pilot phase from March 2025

  4. Mar 2025 to Mar 2026

    Pilot in five forces. Almost 5,000 domestic abuse calls reviewed in West Midlands

  5. 24 Jun 2026

    Phase two announced, adding twelve forces to bring the total to seventeen

  6. Jul 2026

    West Midlands extends to seven day cover including evenings, funded by a further £440,820

  7. By 2029

    Stated commitment to every force in England and Wales

Which forces are covered

  • Phase one, from 2025: West Midlands, Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Humberside, Northumbria
  • Phase two, from June 2026: Thames Valley, West Yorkshire, Hampshire, Essex, Merseyside, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Cambridgeshire, North Wales, Gloucestershire, Cleveland, Dyfed-Powys
  • Twenty six of the 43 territorial forces in England and Wales have no specialist in their control room

What VNS is watching for

  • Whether any outcome measure is published, as distinct from process and perception claims
  • Whether the count of forces is accompanied by hours of cover, number of specialists and provider per force
  • Whether the 2029 commitment holds, and at what rate forces are added between now and then
  • Cleveland, which enters in phase two and is already a multi-metric outlier on IOPC complaint measures, making it the clearest test of whether the intervention changes anything measurable
  • Whether forces continue to describe a funded programme as legislation in their own published material

Sources