Introduction

Background to the statistics

1.1 ONS’s Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) asks respondents about their experiences of a range of crime types, including domestic abuse. The questions on domestic abuse victimisation are asked as part of a self-completion module. These questions have largely remained the same since they were introduced in April 2004. The domestic abuse statistics are published in ONS’s quarterly Crime in England and Wales statistical bulletin and the annual Domestic abuse in England and Wales overview.

1.2 The prevalence measures derived from the domestic abuse questions in the CSEW are ONS’s preferred measures for estimating domestic abuse. Police recorded crime statistics, which are based on crimes reported to police forces in England and Wales, do not provide a good indicator of trends in domestic abuse over time due to changes in how police record crime and priorities and changes in the willingness of victims to report a crime.

1.3 The Serious Crime Act 2015 introduced the offence of “controlling and coercive behaviour”. Between April 2017 and March 2019, ONS developed and tested new questions on controlling and coercive behaviour. It added these questions to the CSEW on a split-sample basis, where half the sample was asked the old questions and half was asked the new questions.

1.4 ONS’s analysis of the data collected from these new questions showed uncertainty in whether they adequately captured the experiences of victims of controlling and coercive behaviour. ONS therefore decided that further development of the questions was needed.

1.5 ONS conducted a user survey in 2020 to better understand users’ needs and concerns with the questions. The findings revealed that the domestic abuse questions did not meet user needs for a measure of the number of incidents or frequency of abuse. The survey also revealed that users wanted more information on the nature of abuse. The questions and estimates then drifted further from definitions set out in legislation with the introduction of the Domestic Abuse Act 2021.

1.6 Given these issues, ONS decided to redevelop the domestic abuse questions to meet user needs and keep pace with the changes in legislation.

1.7 ONS started the second round of question redevelopment in autumn 2020, commissioning a consortium of topic experts to undertake a full review of the questions. The new questions were then developed after multiple rounds of cognitive testing and extensive user engagement. ONS added these questions to the CSEW in April 2023, again on a split-sample basis.

1.8 ONS published the criteria that it used to evaluate the success of these new questions in April 2023. The evaluation criteria were set out in line with our Code of Practice for Statistics and Eurostat’s European Statistics Code of Practice, covering areas like relevance and reliability. For full detail of ONS’s evaluation criteria, see Annex 2. ONS published its evaluation report using the criteria in May 2025.

1.9 ONS permanently introduced the new set of domestic abuse questions into the CSEW in April 2025. The questions are designed to more accurately capture data on experiences of domestic abuse, including the offence of controlling and coercive behaviour.

1.10 The CSEW domestic abuse estimates feed into the ONS’s new combined prevalence measure of domestic abuse, sexual assault and stalking. This measure is the main metric that will be used to gauge the success of the UK Government’s mission to halve violence against women and girls (VAWG) in a decade.

Our approach

1.11 Our 2023 review of the redevelopment of the domestic abuse questions examined whether the new domestic questions had been adequately developed in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics. We considered ONS’s approach to redevelopment, including how it engaged with stakeholders and how it explained the redevelopment process and updated users on progress.

1.12 Now that ONS has completed its redevelopment work and added the new questions to the CSEW, ONS asked us to review the statistics again with a view to awarding them accredited official statistics

1.13 This review assesses whether the new questions and estimates meet user needs, their effect on quality, and the clarity and insight that they offer.

1.14 We gathered evidence from desk research and engagement with key users of the statistics and reviewed a range of documents published by ONS, including:

• all research updates on the redevelopment of the domestic abuse statistics published between November 2021 and May 2025 (November 2021, November 2022, November 2023, December 2024, May 2025)
• the Evaluating a new measure of domestic abuse report
• the Developing a new measure of domestic abuse: April 2023 report
• supplementary documents, including the Quality Methodology and Information report and the accompanying supplementary tables
• ONS’s user engagement documentation

1.15 We also reviewed the Developing and Testing New Domestic Abuse Questions and Approach for the Crime Survey for England and Wales report authored by the academics that worked on the redevelopment of the domestic abuse questions. Additionally, we considered the findings from our 2024 review of the impact of a reduced sample size on the CSEW estimates’ quality.

1.16 We spoke to several key users of the domestic abuse statistics. We conducted three interviews between July 2025 and August 2025 with users from the third sector and academics. We also looked for user views in the media.