One in five offences recorded by police during and immediately after the first national lockdown in England and Wales involved domestic abuse, figures have revealed. Police recorded more than a quarter of a million offences flagged as domestic abuse-related from April to June, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said. The 259,324 offences represent a rise of 7% from the same period in 2019, and an 18% increase from two years ago. The ONS said the number of offences flagged as involving domestic abuse had been increasing over recent years so it could not be determined whether the rise was due directly to the pandemic. In April, May and June roughly a fifth (21%, 20% and 19%) of offences recorded by police were flagged as domestic abuse-related. The number rose each month, with the biggest rise between April and May (9%). The easing of lockdown measures at this time may have made it safer for victims to seek help, the ONS said. As restrictions eased, the proportion of offences that were domestic abuse-related fell slightly – likely due to overall police-recorded crime increasing following the lockdown. Statistics on domestic abuse for the year ending March 2020 were provided. The crime survey for England and Wales estimates that 2.3m adults aged 16 to 74 – 1.6 million women and 757,000 men – experienced domestic abuse over the 12 months. This is a small but not significant fall from the previous year, the ONS said. The police recorded 758,941 domestic abuse-related crimes during the year ending March 2020 – a 9% rise from the previous year. However, referrals of suspects from the police to the Crown Prosecution Service fell 19%, and the proportion of suspects charged also fell slightly – from 74% the previous year to 73%. More than three-quarters of domestic abuse-related CPS prosecutions were successful in securing a conviction (78%), a similar level to the previous year. Ellie Reeves, the shadow solicitor general, said: “This Tory government is letting down victims of domestic abuse on every front. More needs to be done to ensure that victims have faith that the criminal justice system will be there to support them throughout. “The CPS needs to urgently identify the causes of why prosecution levels are so low, learn these lessons quickly and act swiftly to reverse this worrying trend.” The victim was female in 74% of domestic abuse-related crimes, and women aged 16 to 19 were more likely to be victims of domestic abuse than older women, the data showed. Divorced or separated adults were more likely to have experienced domestic abuse than those who were married or civil partnered, cohabiting, single or widowed, the ONS said. People of mixed ethnicity were significantly more likely to experience domestic abuse than black or Asian people, the figures revealed. Helen Ross, from the ONS’s centre for crime and justice, said: “The number of domestic abuse-related crimes recorded by the police continued to increase in the year ending March 2020; this may reflect improvements in police recording and an increase in victims’ willingness to come forward. “Up to date evidence shows this increase continued into the lockdown period – however, it cannot be determined whether this can be directly attributed to the coronavirus pandemic.” She added: “Data suggests that experiences of domestic abuse may have intensified during the lockdown and that victims faced difficulties in safely seeking support under these conditions.”