Chief Constable fortnightly update to the Police and Crime Commissioner - 5 December 2025

Dear Police and Crime Commissioner, Philip Wilkinson,

Yesterday, the Dawn Sturgess Inquiry concluded and the Inquiry Chair, Lord Hughes, published his report.

The collective condolences of everyone at Wiltshire Police remain with Dawn’s family and friends. We are all so sorry for their loss.

Since Dawn’s death on July 8 2018, they have had to wait for answers as to how this tragedy unfolded.

I cannot begin to imagine the pain of losing someone that you love and not having a complete picture of how this happened.

Our communities can read the report here and my full public statement in response to the Inquiry here.

This is a significant moment for both Wiltshire Police and our communities - for those directly involved in the initial emergency response, the ensuing investigations and for those living and working in Salisbury and Amesbury back in 2018. 

However, it is important to remember that at the heart of this public inquiry are Dawn’s family and loved ones, whose lives have been irreversibly changed.

It is also important for me to acknowledge that, in part, this pain was compounded by mistakes made by Wiltshire Police.

Dawn was wrongly described by Wiltshire Police as a known drug user – this was not correct and should never have happened. For this, I am truly sorry.

Concerns were also raised during the Inquiry with regards to how Wiltshire Police responded to the second Novichok incident. This included our officers’ interactions with other frontline responders and whether due regard was shown to other professional assessments.

From the outset of the Inquiry, we made it clear that we were fully committed to learning any further lessons arising throughout this process. This is in addition to the learning already captured in a national review run by the College of Policing in 2020.

During each day of the open sessions for the Inquiry in late 2024, our team captured every opportunity to inform future learning or development to improve our policing service.

We identified 21 areas for improvement (themed below) and these are being tracked and delivered through our Force Organisational Learning Board.

These improvements include:

In addition to these self-identified improvements, we fully accept all the recommendations made in today’s Inquiry report and I am committed to ensuring these will be implemented. 

There will also be a national process to absorb learning, and we will ensure the lessons we identified will be included within this.

Throughout the Inquiry, we listened to the testimonies of our partner agencies to identify ways of continuing to strengthen our local relationships and partnerships. 

Evidence presented to the Inquiry illustrated the criticality of ensuring these relationships are constantly developed for us all to help best protect the public. As outlined in the improvements we have implemented, we prioritised advancing these inter-emergency services relationships for the benefit of our communities, primarily through our Local Resilience Forum.

It is important for me to recognise the significant impacts the Novichok poisonings had on Sergei and Yulia Skripal, former Detective Sergeant Nick Bailey, Dawn’s partner Charlie Rowley and all of their loved ones.

Their lives have been changed as a result of the poisonings and the Inquiry findings will have an impact upon them. My thoughts remain with them at this time.

These events impacted many of our officers, staff and volunteers – both within Wiltshire Police and the hundreds of colleagues who supported us on mutual aid during the incidents or responded from partner agencies. May I express my thanks to you all.

Beyond the public service response, these events have had a significant impact on our communities in Salisbury and Amesbury.

Whilst they will not be defined by the malicious actions of those seeking to cause harm in Salisbury, they have had to acknowledge that this now forms part of their modern-day history.

From the initial incident in Salisbury, the world watched on as local communities supported one another and the emergency services deployed in their neighbourhoods for months at a time. 

They have defined the true meaning of community spirit. 

Through our dedicated Neighbourhood Policing Teams (NPTs), we will continue to support them and offer them the very best possible service.

Last night, Chief Inspector Ben Huggins and Salisbury Inspector Tina Osborn attended the Salisbury Area Board meeting to offer further support to our communities. I would encourage anyone who has concerns or questions to reach out to your local NPT – they are on hand to provide support and advice. You can find out who your local NPT is by visiting our website.

Finally, the Inquiry has provided a transparent scrutiny process of our actions to our communities. 

Transparency is essential for police legitimacy.

Kindest regards to you,

Catherine Roper

Chief Constable, Wiltshire Police