HC Deb 21 December 1999 vol 341 cc484-5W
Mrs. Curtis-Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will record separately the incidence of sexual assault in cases of domestic assault. [103312]

Mr. Charles Clarke

Information on the number of domestic assaults is not recorded centrally, as the statistical systems do not record the relationship between the victim and assailant. Improvements to these systems are in hand. This will, in due course, allow better estimates of domestic assault and may allow different components of a main offence to be classified.

The 1996 British Crime Survey collected information on the prevalence of domestic violence via a computerised self-completion questionnaire. Sexual assault was one component.

Twenty-three per cent. of women aged 16 to 59 reported that they had experienced domestic assault at some time in their lives. Among the women who had been assaulted the percentage who had been forced to have sex at the last assault was eight per cent.