One in six women experiences domestic violence, research says

Anybody with a conviction of six months or more for attacking their partner would be on the list and forced to tell police when they moved home, the Times says.

The list would be modelled on the sex offenders register and made available to the NHS, social services and some benefits agencies.

The decision on whether to tell a woman of her partner's violent past would be made after a risk assessment by police and social services.

'No one-offs'

Government plans for the register have already reportedly received support from the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Jim Gamble, ACPO's lead officer on domestic violence told the Times: "Domestic violence is never a one-off.

"If someone gets a custodial sentence we need to monitor them after their release and asses the risk to the wider community, to former partners and to new partners."

He said the victims of domestic violence usually suffered for between two and 12 years, before the offender moved on to abuse another victim.

Verbal threats

It is thought the register will be among plans to tackle domestic violence to be set out in a Home Office consultation paper next month.

News of the plans follows a recent study which suggested that one in six women had suffered domestic violence.

One in five of those had been abused while pregnant.

The study, by doctors in Hull, found abuse had ranged from verbal threats to forced sexual intercourse.

Single women in their late 20s appeared most at risk and boyfriends were most likely to be the perpetrators.

Mixed reaction

The plans received a cautious welcome from Sarah McGuire, a former barrister who is a member of Justice for Women, a group campaigning for changes to the law on domestic violence.

She said that such an initiative "has to be surrounded by the right institutional framework, we have to be talking about effective prosecution, we have to be talking about immediate arrest".

Robert Whiston, of Mankind Initiative, which promotes fathers' civil rights, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme he fears the plans could fail.

"The experience in other areas in having a register is that it tends to be counter-productive," he said.