Police in England and Wales recorded 910,980 domestic abuse-related crimes in the year-ending March 2022, an increase of 7.7% on the previous 12 months, Office of National Statistics (ONS) figures show.
The rise may reflect increasing willingness of victims to report crimes, the ONS said.
But arrests by police were down: 31.3 per 100 domestic abuse-related crimes versus 32.6. The number of referrals of suspects to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision fell 13.8% to 67,063, mirroring the decrease in arrests, the office added.
The CPS’s domestic abuse-related charging rate increased for the first time in four years to 72.7% but remains below the 75.9% recorded in the 12 months to March 2018.
The number of domestic abuse-related CPS prosecutions decreased to 53,207, continuing a trend since 2016/17. Last year’s figure was 43.2% down from the 93,593 in the 12 months to March 2017.
Also, the proportion of prosecutions leading to a conviction decreased for the first time since 2014/15, down to 76.4% and 1.7 percentage points lower than the previous year.
