Today, Wednesday 26th November 2025, the ONS has published the latest overview of domestic abuse in England and Wales. The data shows:
- An estimated 3.8m people were victims of domestic abuse in year to March 2025, according to the crime survey for England and Wales. Of these 2.2m were women, and 1.5m were men.
- During the same period, the police recorded 1.4m domestic abuse related incidents and crimes in the last year. Of these, 533,967 were categorised as incidents, while 816,493 were declared as crimes.
- In the 12 months to March 2025 the Crown Prosecution Services (CPS) received 76,393 referrals from the police for domestic abuse related offences, an increase of 5.2% from the previous year.
- During the same 12-month period the CPS charged 53,919 suspects and convicted 41,070 offenders for domestic abuse related offences. This is an increase of 10% and 6% respectively, from the previous year.
- Twenty per cent of domestic abuse related offences that reached a conclusion during the 12 months to March 2025 had evidential difficulties, despite the suspect being identified and the victim supporting the prosecution.
- The most common form of domestic abuse experienced by victims in the last year was emotional abuse by a partner or ex partner.
- Nearly 20 per cent of young people, aged 16 to 19 had experienced domestic abuse in the last year.
Responding to the figures the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said: “Domestic abuse is a national emergency and with more and more young people experiencing it, it’s clear we need to do everything in our power to tackle and prevent it.
“I hear daily from victims of domestic abuse who have spent years waiting to go to court or been completely traumatised by the process, while far too many don’t even get there as these figures show. This deep sense of mistrust and fear stemming from low conviction rates and poor communication and support is why we need specialist services in place to help survivors in their pursuit of justice.
“But ultimately these figures highlight the urgent need for government to grip this issue. While we’ve seen some progress with the expansion of domestic-abuse protection orders and embedding domestic abuse specialist in some 999 control rooms, the ongoing delays to the violence against women and girls’ strategy has left the mission to halve VAWG languishing.
“If ministers want to see these figures start to fall and deliver the change survivors were promised, they must urgently publish a truly cross-government strategy that is focused on preventing domestic abuse and provide the necessary funding it needs to succeed.”
ENDS