FOI reference: FOI-2024-2255

You asked

Individually for each of the last three years for which the information is available please confirm:

  1. The total number of homicides in the UK that have officially been designated as caused by domestic abuse/domestic violence where the perpetrator has been the victim’s ‘intimate partner’.

  2. How many of the victims were female?

  3. Where the victim was female, how many of the perpetrators were male and how many were female?

  4. How many of the victims were male?

  5. Where the victim was male, how many of the perpetrators were male and how many female?

We said

Thank you for your request. 

We publish annual data from the Home Office Homicide Index, 'Homicide in England and Wales’. This report includes detailed, record-level information about each homicide recorded by police in England and Wales. 

Questions 1, 2 and 4: Worksheet 15 of our Appendix tables: homicide in England and Wales published alongside this release, provides data on the number of homicides for victims aged 16 and over, by relationship of victim to principal suspect including partner/ ex-partner and by sex of victim, for the last three years. As the table looks at principal suspects, the figures are subject to revision as cases are dealt with by the police and by the courts, or as further information becomes available. We do not hold the details of the sex of the perpetrator.  

In case this is also helpful table 34 of our Appendix tables: homicide in England and Wales provides data on the number of domestic and non-domestic homicides, by sex of principal suspect and victim, for the last three years. However, this data is not disaggregated by the nature of the relationship between the victim and perpetrator and domestic homicides are not confined to those in intimate relationships. See Note 32 of the Appendix table linked above for a definition of domestic homicides.  

Table 23 in our annual report on Domestic abuse prevalence and victim characteristics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) provides more detailed data on the relationship of victim to principal suspect in domestic homicides, by type of relationship and sex. However, it should be noted that this is a three-year combined data set because of the low numbers of victims recorded by the police year on year.  

As these data are collected by the Home Office it may be helpful to contact them directly if you have any further questions. They can be contacted via email at CrimeandPoliceStats@homeoffice.gov.uk.   

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are primarily responsible for data on offenders and may be able to help you further. They can be contacted at data.access@justice.gov.uk.  

If you have any further questions, please email us at crimestatistics@ons.gov.uk and we will endeavour to help.