FOI 383-2025 / Apr 2025 / Domestic abuse
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 383-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 1st April 2025 as follows:
I am writing to request the following information under the Freedom of Information Act.
Q1. For the previous 10 calendar years, please provide the total number of recorded crimes which have been flagged as domestic-abuse related incidents (ie. have met the cross-government definition of domestic violence and abuse) reported by young people, broken down by the following age groups:
Under 18
18-24
25-30
NB: the cross-government definition of Domestic violence and abuse: "any incident or pattern of incidents of controlling, coercive, threatening behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 or over who are, or have been, intimate partners or family members regardless of gender or sexuality. The abuse can encompass, but is not limited to: psychological, physical, sexual, financial and emotional."
Please provide this data for each year:
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025 – latest available data
Q2. Of the reports cited in answer to Q1, please provide the number of cases that resulted in:
An arrest
A charge
A prosecution
A conviction
Please provide this data for each year:
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025 – latest available data
Q3. For the previous 10 calendar years, please provide the total number of coercive or controlling behaviour offences reported by young people, also broken down by the following age groups. Please search for this data using the terms ‘coercive control’ and crimes alleged under Home Office code 008/67.
Under 18
18-24
25-30
Please provide this data for each year:
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025 – latest available data
Q4. Of the coercive and controlling behaviour reports cited in answer to Q3, please provide the number of cases that resulted in:
An arrest
A charge
A prosecution
A conviction
Please provide this data for each year:
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025 – latest available data
Q5. If available, please provide a breakdown of the most common reasons why domestic abuse and coercive control cases did not proceed to charge (e.g., lack of evidence, victim withdrawal).
Q6. Finally, can you please attach MO codes for the calendar year 2024 for domestic abuse-related offences involving alleged victims under 30? I accept redactions may need to be made to remove personal information.
Please accept my sincere apologies for the delay in providing the response to your request and for any inconvenience that this may have caused. Please find the response for Warwickshire Police set out below.
Response: Please be advised that some of the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. In order to determine responses for Q2, Q4 and Q5 of the request, detailing the number of arrests, charges, and reasons for not charging for all suspects attached to those crimes identified at Q1 and Q3, it would be necessary to carry out a manual trawl of each crime investigation on an individual basis as well as cross referencing suspect details within the Custody and Case System. Please be advised that due to system changes, crime data is only retrievable for statistical purposes from 2018 onwards. Therefore, a scoping exercise was conducted by the business area for all crimes recorded from 1st January 2018 onwards, with a ‘Domestic Abuse’ flag and a victim aged 30 or under, which retrieved over 17,000 crimes. As you will appreciate, manual review of this amount of crimes would take an inordinate amount of time and would be above the amount to which we are legally required to respond, i.e., the cost of locating and retrieving the requested information, exceeds the ‘appropriate level’ as stated in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations 2004.
In accordance with Section 12(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, this letter acts as a Refusal Notice for these parts of the request, and, if one or more parts of a request exceeds the fees limit, then section 12 of the Act applies to the whole request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance on refining your request. I can advise that it may be possible to conduct searches to locate and retrieve some information within the fees limit, using the following search methods:
For the period 1st January 2018 to date:
Q1: All crimes with an included classification of ‘Domestic Abuse Investigation’, with at least one victim role attached and where at least one victim is aged 30 years or under, broken down by the following age groups:
- Under 18
- 18-24
- 25-30
Q2: Using the crimes identified at Q1, provide:
- The number of custody references linked to any of the resulting crimes*
- Crime outcomes**
Q3: All crimes with a classification of ‘008/67 – Engage in Controlling/Coercive behaviour in an intimate/family relationship’, with at least one victim role attached and where at least one victim is aged 30 years or under, broken down by the following age groups:
- Under 18
- 18-24
- 25-30
Q4: A breakdown of the crimes identified at Q3 by:
- The number of custody references linked to any of the resulting crimes*
- Crime outcomes**
*Custody references are not always linked to a crime; therefore, this will only detect arrests which have been linked.
**Crime outcomes only reflect the most serious outcome for any suspect attached to a crime, i.e, where there are multiple suspects attached to an investigation, the outcome would not take into account ‘lesser’ or ‘like’ outcomes of any other suspect(s).
Please be advised that prosecution and conviction data falls within the remit of, and is held by, HM Courts & Tribunal Services (HMCTS). You may therefore wish to contact them in regard to these elements of the request.
Your attention is drawn to the below which details your right of complaint.
Should you have any further enquiries concerning this matter, please write or email the Freedom of Information Unit quoting the reference number above.
Yours sincerely
Freedom of Information Officer
Freedom of Information Unit
Warwickshire Police
PO Box 4
Leek Wootton
Warwickshire
CV35 7QB