Domestic Violence Officers

I am requesting the following information under the Freedom of Information Act:

For March 2010, March 2011 and October 2011, please tell me:

1. How many Domestic Violence Officers were in the force’s establishment (excluding vacancies) at each point (measured in FTE and headcount)

2. How many of those Domestic Violence Officers were solely focused on domestic violence work at each point (i.e. their roles didn’t involve other responsibilities)

3. How many civilian staff working on domestic violence were in the force’s establishment (excluding vacancies) at each point (measured in FTE and headcount)

Please also detail any cuts to Domestic Violence Officer numbers, hours/specialism, or civilian staffing of domestic violence work, that are to be applied in 2011/12 and/or 2012/13 (please also indicate the extent to which this is accounted for in the above data for October 2011).

Further, for financial years 2010/11 and 2011/12, please tell me:

1.Whether the force operated/operates a dedicated Domestic Violence Unit in each year

2.How much funding was budgeted for the Domestic Violence Unit each year

3.In the absence of a dedicated Domestic Violence Unit, how much funding was budgeted for work on domestic violence each year

For the entirety of this request, ‘Domestic Violence Officers’ include (but are not limited to) officers who specialise in domestic violence work, whether or not they are formally called Domestic Violence Officers.

In accordance with section 1(1) (a) of the Act our response is provided below;

In respect of each of your questions, there is no information held.

The Constabulary has a Strategic Public Protection Unit that deals with Domestic Abuse strategy / procedure etc.

The Constabulary's 3 BCUs each has a Public Protection Unit that deal with Child Abuse / Domestic Abuse / Vulnerable Adult Abuse / Missing from Home and Registered Sex Offenders. Each PPU also has a Referral Unit which deals with referrals re child abuse etc. from both within the Constabulary and externally

PPU Inspectors will manage all issues relating to child abuse / domestic abuse etc

A number of Sergeants / Constables (identified below) will be responsible for child abuse and domestic abuse investigations. In relation to domestic abuse only those incidents which are 'serious' or the subject of MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) will be dealt with by PPU officers. Neighbourhood teams and Custody units will deal with the majority of domestic abuse cases. It would therefore be very difficult to give precise info re costs solely related to the amount of money dedicated by the force to tackling domestic abuse

There are 4 multi agency domestic abuse partnerships within the Constabulary area, the Constabulary contributes £9750.00 per annum to each partnership. However, the Constabulary also supports Cheshire East and Cheshire West and Chester Partnerships by accommodating the partnerships Family Safety Units at two of our police stations. There are a number of other multi agency initiatives the Constabulary contributes to (for example domestic abuse prevention / enforcement programmes at the the time of the football World Cup) The Constabulary does not keep detailed easily accessible statistical information re these other initiatives and the overall contribution to responding to / addressing the issues around domestic abuse prevention etc. and therefore this information would be difficult to obtain within resource constraints