Time limit for reporting domestic abuse is extended

VICTIMS of domestic abuse are to get more time to report assaults under a proposed new law by Priti Patel to prevent police dropping thousands of cases.

The number of domestic abuse cases abandoned by police have more than doubled in four years because current rules dictate that police have only six months to charge common assaults, including domestic abuse, from when the alleged incident took place. Campaigners

have claimed this is unfair because of the complexity of such cases and delays as women determine whether to report an abusive partner.

The Home Secretary is now preparing to change the law to extend the time frame to up to two years, giving women 18 months more time to report any assault by their attacker to the police.

The move was welcomed by Yvette Cooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, who has campaigned for the change. “I started campaigning on this because of a brave woman in my constituency who went to the police about repeated domestic abuse but was told she had run out of time and nothing would be done,” she said.

“If the Government has listened, then this is a real chance of getting more justice and protection for people in future from domestic abuse.”

Figures show the number of domestic abuse cases that timed out because they failed to meet a six-month deadline increased from 1,451 in 2016-17 to 3,763 in 2020-21.

Over the past five years, 12,982 cases have ended because of the six-month limit passing, according to the data, obtained by the BBC from 30 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

As with falling rape convictions, there has been a decline in the proportion of abusers being charged at the same time as there has been an increase in domestic abuse common assaults, from around 100,000 in 2016-17 to more than 170,000 in 2020-21.

A person is guilty of common assault if they inflict violence on another person or make that person think they are about to be attacked.

This is not limited to physically violent acts – threatening words or a raised fist could lead the victim to believe they are going to be attacked.

There has been a 159 per cent increase in the number of times that common assaults flagged as involving domestic abuse have not been charged because of this time limit.

Between 2016-17 and 2020-21, the total number of common assaults flagged as instances of domestic abuse increased by 71 per cent from 99,134 to 170,013. In the same time period, the number of these common assaults that resulted in charges being brought fell by 23 per cent.