HL Deb 01 May 2001 vol 625 cc79-80WA
Lord Skelmersdale

asked Her Majesty's Government:

When the figures for marriage, divorce and domestic violence will be included with the neighbourhood statistics proposed in the Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team 18 Report. [HL11571

Lord McIntosh of Haringey

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated 30th April 2001.

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question about when the figures for marriage, divorce and domestic violence will be included with the neighbourhood statistics proposed in the Social Exclusion Unit's Policy Action Team 18 Report (HL1157).

Policy Action Team 18 identified a wide range of information about small areas that would assist the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal. Small area figures for marriage, divorce and domestic violence were not identified by the Policy Action Team 18 Report. An extensive programme of work has begun to disseminate data that already exists through the National Statistics website and to prioritise areas for future development. Development will take account of user views, cost, feasibility and usefulness.

Information on marriages and divorces is collected on the basis of the Registration District where the marriage was solemnised and the location of the court respectively rather than by residence. At present statistics on marriages are published by Registration District. These are available on StatBase, the National Statistics database, which can be accessed via the National Statistics website. Statistics on divorces are available from the ONS at national level only. These are also available on StatBase. The Court Service publishes the numbers of petitions filed and the numbers of decrees nisi and absolute granted by Court Circuit, although the information is available by individual court on request from the Court Service.

Offences of domestic violence recorded by the police are not identifiable separately from other offences of violence and there is therefore no immediate prospect of figures of small geographical areas becoming routinely available.

The scope to develop statistics will be the subject of further research in the context of the National Strategy for Neighbourhood Renewal.