Barnet Council Domestic Abuse and Violence Against Women and Girls Strategy consultation

Barnet Council are currently consulting on our new Domestic Abuse (DA) and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy 2021-2024. This is a highly important matter and I'd strongly advise anyone who cares about the matter to consider contributing. You can find out more about the consultation BY CLICKING HERE.

Reading the draft strategy, I was alarmed to read that abuse is on the increase and the detection rate is only 14.9%.  The report states

Barnet context

In recent years we have seen a step change in the number of these crimes recorded by the police and the number of referrals to our support services. 

For rolling 12 months to March 2018 and for rolling 12 months to March 2021, domestic abuse incidents reported to the police in Barnet increased from 4757 to 5023.  For the rolling 12 months to March 2018 the percentage of incidents that became offences increased in 12 months to March 2018 from 53% to 60.5% in the 12 months to March 2021. 

Barnet’s rate of domestic abuse incidents in Barnet is 7.6 per 1000 population (12 months to March 2021). This is the 2nd lowest rate of all 32 London boroughs.

 There were 782 domestic abuse violence with injury offences recorded by the police in Barnet in 2020/21 (a decrease of 3.2% compared to the previous year). In 2020, for violence with Injury domestic abuse offences, 118 suspects were identified and proceeded against by police. This equates to a Sanction Detection Rate of 14.9%, up from 13.3% the previous year.

I'd like to see Barnet Council doing far more than they've outlined in the documents. As someone who campaigns for music venues, through the Save London Music Campaign, I was hoping that there would be something in the document about making women feel safe in public spaces and also addressing ways in which men could be encouraged to consider how their inadvertent behaviours can make females feel uncomfortable.