§ Mr. Gerald HowarthTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many incidents of domestic violence the police were called out to deal with in(a) 1970, (b) 1980 and (c) 1999; and what the cost was to public funds. [120658]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeThe information requested is not available.
The latest available estimate of domestic violence incidents recorded by the police, obtained from Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary 1998–99 Annual Statistical Return, is that there were approximately 355,000 such incidents in that year in England and Wales.
Another source of information on domestic violence is the British Crime Survey. This suggests that the actual prevalence of domestic violence is significantly higher. For the years 1981, 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1997 the estimated number of domestic violence incidents were as follows:
Changes in the extent to which respondents are willing to divulge their experience may have influenced these trends.
Thousand Year 1981 1991 1993 1995 1997 All incidents 290 539 1,179 992 835 Reported incidents 57 126 271 296 220 The costs of police operations concerning domestic violence are not collected centrally. However, a report by Professor Elizabeth Stanko and others, "Counting the costs; estimating the impact of domestic violence in the London Borough of Hackney", was published by Crime Concern in 1998. This estimated the total cost in 1996 to the public sector of providing services for women and children facing domestic violence in Hackney at around £90 per annum per household. A copy of this report has been placed in the Library.