FOI 877/25
FOI 877/25
Request
I am submitting a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 regarding the enforcement of coercive and controlling behaviour legislation under Section 76 of the Serious Crime Act 2015, and subsequent updates under the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.
Please provide the following data for each calendar year from 2019 to 2024 inclusive:
- The number of recorded offences of coercive and controlling behaviour where it was listed as the principal offence.
- The number of individuals charged with coercive and controlling behaviour.
- The number of cases that proceeded to prosecution.
- The number of resulting convictions where coercive control was the principal offence.
- The number of cases closed with "No Further Action" (NFA) and, if held, the number where victim withdrawal was cited as the reason.
Response
A search has been conducted on our crime and incident recording system (Niche RMS) for all crimes recorded under the crime type ‘Controlling and coercive behaviour’ during the requested time frame.
Please be advised that this search has been conducted under the crime date and not by the reported date. This means that any results brought back will relate to crimes recorded between 1st January 2019 and 31st December 2024 and not when the incidents were first reported. Therefore, results retrieved may contain incidents that were reported before 1st January 2019.
Question 1
Year |
Total |
|
2019 |
525 |
|
2020 |
449 |
|
2021 |
406 |
|
2022 |
448 |
|
2023 |
622 |
|
2024 |
616 |
Grand Total |
3066 |
Question 2
Year |
Total charged |
|
2019 |
66 |
|
2020 |
55 |
|
2021 |
26 |
|
2022 |
57 |
|
2023 |
57 |
|
2024 |
85 |
Grand Total |
346 |
Question 3 & 4
South Wales Police do not hold data on prosecutions and convictions. Under S16 our duty to advise and assist you may wish to submit this part of your request to CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) using the link provided below:
Freedom of Information | The Crown Prosecution Service (cps.gov.uk)
Question 5
Outcome type |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
Total |
| 00: Not recognised as an official outcome | 2 | 3 | 11 | 25 | 41 | ||
| 03a: Caution - adults [alternate] | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 05: Offender died | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 09: Not in public interest [CPS] | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |||
| 12: Prosecution prevented [S ill] | 1 | 5 | 6 | ||||
| 13: Prosecution prevented [VW dead/ill] | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 14: Evidential difficulties [S not identified] | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 23 |
| 15: Evidential difficulties [VS] | 166 | 166 | 127 | 143 | 229 | 196 | 1027 |
| 16: Evidential difficulties [VDNS] | 282 | 222 | 243 | 234 | 315 | 291 | 1587 |
| 17: Prosecution time limit expired | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| 18: Investigation complete [NSI] | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 13 | |
| 20: Further action by other agency [V Aware] | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| 21: Investigation not in public interest [Police] | 1 | 1 | 5 | 7 | |||
Grand Total |
459 |
394 |
380 |
391 |
565 |
531 |
2720 |
This data includes all outcomes that did not result in a charge. In relation to your request for victims withdrawing, please see the data under the outcome type ‘evidential difficulties VDNS (Victim Does Not Support)’.
Please see below the meanings of the abbreviations included in the outcome data:
- SUA – Suspect under age
- S ill – Suspect ill
- VW dead/ill – Victim or witness dead/ill
- S not identified – Suspect not identified
- VS - Victim Supports
- VDNS – Victim does not support
- NSI – No suspect identified
- V aware – Victim aware
- CPS – Crown Prosecution Service
- NIPI – Not in public interest
Please note the outcome 00: Not recognised as an official outcome relates to crimes that have not yet been finalised and remain under investigation.
South Wales Police is committed to protecting the public from sexual and violent offenders. We have strong partnerships that provide a robust multi agency approach to public protection. We remain focussed on ensuring that we maintain our force mission of keeping South Wales Safe.