FOI 398-24 Domestic Violence

Enquiry Reference:  398 - 24                                                                        

 

I write in connection with regards to your Freedom of Information request.  Below is your request and our response.

 

1. How many incidents of domestic violence were reported by the public and recorded during the requested timeframes?

1. 29870

 

1. Of those reported, how many cases of domestic violence were followed up by a police officer?

1. All crimes are investigated.

 

1. What were the police officer’s response times for each domestic violence incident/report/call?

1.  

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Under 10 mins	1993	2236	2125	2305	2246	710
10-30 mins	1155	1401	1484	1533	1621	515
1-2hrs	198	152	114	75	72	30
2-4hrs	171	136	81	65	88	27
30-60mins	191	267	181	134	109	32
Over 4 hrs	1106	566	577	593	603	117
Not recorded	678	956	862	1064	975	326

 

 

1. How many of these cases resulted in a prosecution?

1. It the duty of Cleveland Police to identify, apprehend suspects, decisions regarding prosecutions are the responsibility of the Crown Prosecution Service and Convictions is that of HM Courts Service

 

In your response, please include the following information (where available):

1. The nature of the abuse (e.g. psychological, physical, sexual, emotional)

 

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) places two duties on public authorities. Unless exemptions apply, the first duty at Section 1 (1) (a) is to confirm or deny whether the information specified in a request is held. The second duty at Sec 1(1) (b) is to disclose information that has been confirmed as being held. Where exemptions are relied upon s17 of FOIA requires that we provide the applicant with a notice which: a) states that fact b) specifies the exemption(s) in question and c) states (if that would not otherwise be apparent) why the exemption applies.

 

Having made enquiries within the Force this would require a manual trawl of each case to determine and is subjective and because of the numbers involved this would take in excess of the appropriate time stipulated by the Secretary for Constitutional Affairs, Lord Falconer on the 18th Of October 2004, that is, eighteen hours. This falls under the exemption of 'Compliance exceeding the appropriate limit' covered by Section 12 (1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and as such this work could not be undertaken. Therefore, please treat this as a refusal notice under S17 of the Freedom of information Act.

 

However, as a gesture of goodwill outside of the act we have provided what information we obtained before it was realised this exceeded the time specified. The below table is the offence category.

 

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Death or serious injury caused by illegal driving			1	1
Homicide	2	1	1		2	2
Violence With Injury	1903	2005	1925	2229	2212	642
Violence Without Injury	3587	3708	3497	3539	3500	1113
Grand Total	5492	5714	5424	5769	5714	1757

 

 

1. The gender of the victims

Gender	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Female	4194	4291	3960	4210	4020	1186
Male	1295	1416	1454	1554	1671	541
Unknown	3	4	6	3	9	14

 

1. The gender of the offenders

1. This is in relation to solved cases only.

 

Gender	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Female	44	61	72	115	74	11
Male	465	615	575	685	495	82

 

1. The ethnic background of the victims

 

	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Asian	102	100	73	78	104	34
Black	27	36	27	34	39	18
Mixed	46	29	35	38	37	16
Not stated	206	215	214	249	307	172
Other	18	30	37	30	30	16
White	4156	4206	3941	4184	4146	1273

 

 

1. The age of the victims

 

Age range	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Under 18	224	263	215	223	181	64
18 to 29	1851	1849	1643	1670	1562	450
30-39	1591	1676	1641	1721	1611	496
40-49	966	1034	985	1123	1176	372
50-59	555	564	574	643	701	208
60+	279	307	321	350	453	161
Not recorded	26	21	45	39	30	6

 

 

Please present this data annually for each of the below periods:

1st January 2024 > 4th April 2024 (or to the latest available date)

1st January 2023 > 31st December 2023 

1st January 2022 > 31st Dec 2022 

1st January 2021 > 31st Dec 2021 

1st January 2020 > 31st Dec 2020 

1st January 2019 > 31st Dec 2019 

Please send the information in a CSV or XLSX format.

 

 

1. Of the reported domestic abuse cases, how many were given a domestic violence protection order?

 

We have looked at the content of this question and must advise you that we consider the Freedom of information Act 2000 Exemption 21 (Information Accessible by other means) is engaged in relation to this request this is a class based and absolute exemption, requiring no prejudice or public interest to be considered.

If you visit the below website the information is available.

 

Domestic abuse in England and Wales – Data tool - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)

 

Please note that all statistical data supplied in relation to Freedom of Information requests is a snapshot of data held at the time the request was received by the Freedom of Information office and is subject to constant change/updates.

 

The Cleveland Police response to your request is unique and it should be noted that Police Forces do not use generic systems or identical procedures to capture and record data therefore responses from Cleveland Police should not be used as a comparison with any other force response you receive.

 

If you are not satisfied with this response or any actions taken in dealing with your request, you have the right to request an independent internal review of your case under our review procedure. The Freedom of Information Code of Practice (see below link) states that a request for internal review should be made within 20 working days of the date on this response or 40 working days if extenuating circumstances to account for the delay can be evidenced. Public authorities are not obliged to accept internal reviews after this date.

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/freedom-of-information-code-of-practice

 

Yours sincerely

 

Information Rights Decision Maker