Redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics: user survey 2024

Closed 5 Jan 2025

Opened 3 Dec 2024

Contact

crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk

Feedback updated 2 May 2025

We asked

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) undertook a user engagement exercise to collect feedback on the redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics for the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW). This took place between 3 December 2024 and 5 January 2025 and was published alongside our Redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics: research update December 2024 and trial outputs.  

This is an interim update to provide information on responses by sector, what topics we asked users to respond to, and when we will publish full details of our final results and evaluation.

We asked for feedback on the following:

  • content of the new domestic abuse survey questions
  • estimates produced from the new questions
  • the methodology used to produce the estimates
  • supporting information on the estimates
  • trial domestic abuse outputs

For more information, please see the overview section of the survey page.

You said

We received a total of 14 responses from a variety of stakeholders. Below is a table that shows a breakdown of the types of users who replied.   

Table 1: Respondent count by sector   

User type

Number of respondents

Central and devolved governments

3

Charities and voluntary sector

6

Think tanks and academia

4

Not answered

1

Survey respondents provided us with a substantial amount of useful feedback. Users told us that they used our domestic abuse statistics and data for academic research, improving policy or processes and planning service provision.

The survey results provided us with information on user’s views on the new domestic abuse questions we are trialling on the CSEW, the methodology behind estimates and feedback on how we can improve our outputs on domestic abuse.

We did

We have analysed the data and the results from the survey, and this has formed part of our evaluation to decide whether we include the new domestic abuse questions permanently on the CSEW.

Full details on the survey results and our evaluation of the new domestic abuse questions will be published in our Evaluating a new measure of domestic abuse article on 16 May 2025.

We would like to thank all of those who took part in the survey and provided us with invaluable feedback.

Overview

To ensure our statistics continue to provide the most accurate information and meet the needs of users, we have undertaken a user engagement, research and testing programme to improve the collection of Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) data on domestic abuse.

New survey questions to measure domestic abuse were added to the CSEW in April 2023 as part of a split-sample trial. Half of respondents are asked the new questions, and the other half are asked the existing questions.

Alongside our Redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics: research update December 2024 article, released on 3 December 2024, we published trial outputs from the new domestic abuse questions.

As part of our evaluation of the new questions, we want to hear your thoughts. We are specifically seeking feedback from people that are familiar with or have been involved in the redevelopment of domestic abuse statistics over the last few years. This survey asks for your views on the new questions, the estimates and trial outputs produced from them.

Your feedback will help us to answer the research questions that we outlined in our research update. In early 2025, we will make a final assessment of the evaluation criteria and decide whether to include the new domestic abuse questions permanently on the CSEW from April 2025. 

Audiences

  • Analysts
  • Academics
  • Charities
  • Government
  • Local government
  • Researchers
  • Statisticians

Interests

  • Crime
  • Surveys