Lord Ahmed – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Home Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Ahmed on 2015-12-10.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the changes in the rates of incidence of domestic violence and rape between 2005 and 2015.

Lord Bates

This government is committed to tackling violence against women and girls. We want victims to have the confidence to report these crimes, knowing they will get the support they need and that everything will be done to bring offenders to justice.

The 2014/15 Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimates that 6.1% of adults aged 16 to 59 experienced any form of domestic abuse in the last year, down from 8.9% in the 2004/05 survey. While the latest estimate is not statistically significantly different from recent years, it is the lowest since these questions were first asked in 2004/05.

The 2014/15 CSEW also estimates that 0.3% of adults aged 16 to 59 had been a victim of rape (including attempts) in the last year. Due to the low number of respondents to the survey that have been a victim of this crime, it is not possible to say whether this estimate differs from surveys conducted in other years. However, prevalence of less serious sexual assault has fallen from 2.3% in the 2004/05 CSEW to 1.5% in the 2014/15 survey.

Data from the CSEW cannot be disaggregated by ethnicity, nor by the relationship between the perpetrator and the victim.