FOI 874-2025 / Aug 2025 / Digital domestic abuse
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST REFERENCE NO: 874-2025
I write in connection with your request for information which was received on 21st August 2025 as follows:
I am writing you under the Freedom of Information Act. Please could I have the following information if available:
Q1. The number of crimes recorded considered to be digital domestic abuse within, for example, this framework: https://www.met.police.uk/advice/advice-and-information/daa/domestic-abuse/digital-domestic-abuse/
- a) Out of these, how many resulted in arrests?
- b) How many of these resulted in a conviction?
Clarification:
Could I please have the information from 2022, 2023 and 2024?
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 the requested information is not centrally recorded and is therefore not held in a readily retrievable format. There is no specific crime of ‘domestic abuse’ or ‘digital domestic abuse’. The identification of a crime that is domestic abuse related is achieved by means of a flag/marker or other type of identifier. Therefore, whilst we can identify domestic abuse related crimes, the same cannot be said for identifying digital domestic abuse as there is no separate flag/marker for this. Whilst the crime recording system does have an ‘online crime’ flag, this would not assist to identify ‘digital domestic abuse’, which can involve the use of any technology. Therefore, in order to provide a response to the request, it would be necessary to manually review the MO Description / Incident Summary for all crimes with a domestic abuse identifier on an individual basis, first for relevancy, using the definition of ‘digital domestic abuse’ provided within the request, and then to calculate the number of arrests. On average around 7,000 domestic related crimes are recorded yearly and, at an estimate of 5 minutes per crime to review, this would equate to 1,750 hours of work for the request. This would exceed the cost threshold of £450, which equates to 18 hours work at a standard rate of £25 per hour, 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 this request.
In accordance with Section 16 of the Act, I have a duty to provide advice and assistance on refining your request; however, due to the volume of records that would need to be individually reviewed, I am unable to suggest a way to reduce the request into one that could be managed within the fees limit.
Outside of the Act and to provide assistance, I can advise that in relation to Q1b, conviction data falls within the remit of, and is held by, HM Courts & Tribunal Services (HMCTS). You may therefore wish to contact them regarding this element 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