Domestic Abuse - 1217/21

Date Responded 21 September 2021

Provision of information held by Northumbria Police made under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the 'Act')

As you may be aware the purpose of the Act is to allow a general right of access to information held at the time of a request, by a Public Authority (including the Police), subject to certain limitations and exemptions.

You asked:

Please disclose the total number of Common Assault cases that were flagged as domestic abuse cases reported to your police force in the financial years:
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21

For reference Q1 is aiming to get the total figure of these cases so as to compare the numbers in Q2 and Q3.

Please disclose the number of Common Assault cases that were flagged as domestic abuse cases that passed the six month limit for prosecuting and were therefore not prosecuted in the financial years:
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21

I would like cases to be counted for the year where the report/allegation was received – so a case that is reported in Dec 2018 but the six month prosecution limit elapses in June 2019 should be counted in the 2018 figure. I hope that makes sense but please let me know if you need me to clarify anything.

Please disclose the number of Common Assault cases that were flagged as domestic abuse cases that resulted in charges being brought against the alleged perpetrator in the financial years:
2016-17
2017-18
2018-19
2019-20
2020-21

As in Q2, I would like you to count these cases by the year the original report/allegation was received rather than the year in which charges were brought (if charges were brought in a subsequent year)

In Response:

Data has been taken under the HO code 105/01 Common Assault and Battery only; this does not include the variations of common assault such as religiously/racially aggravated common assault.

Note that for Q2, we have used any crimes finalised with "Prosecution time limit expired."

Year	Offences	Charges	Prosecution Time Limit Expired
2016-17	2959	332	1
2017-18	6256	500	22
2018-19	7141	556	34
2019-20	6132	404	22
2020-21	5318	378	23

Disclaimer

Due to the different methods of recording information across 43 forces, a specific response from one constabulary should not be seen as an indication of what information could be supplied (within cost) by another. Systems used for recording these figures are not generic, nor are the procedures used locally in capturing the data. For this reason responses between forces may differ, and should not be used for comparative purposes.

The information we have supplied to you is likely to contain intellectual property rights of Northumbria Police. Your use of the information must be strictly in accordance with the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) or such other applicable legislation. In particular, you must not re-use this information for any commercial purpose.