A web page produced by the House of Commons library offers an overview of how the Covid-19 pandemic has affected domestic abuse in England and Wales, and examines the government’s response to domestic violence during the pandemic.

Domestic abuse during the Covid-19 outbreak has been called an ‘epidemic within the pandemic’, by Vera Baird QC, the Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales.

The overview, which was written by Tirion Havard, an Associate Professor at London South Bank University and an academic parliamentary fellow, offers some very interesting insights into emerging patterns within domestic abuse during the first year of the pandemic. It also raises important concerns about the nature of those changes.

In a section entitled, More “complex and serious” cases, the page says, “Karen Ingala-Smith, who runs the ‘Counting Dead Women’ project, estimated that during the first three weeks of the first lockdown, there had been sixteen domestic abuse killings of women and children in the UK, which was the highest for at least 11 years.”

The overview also includes some very good links for anyone wishing to read further on the subject.

You can access the overview here.