Two women die every week at the hands of partners and ex-partners

The service's chief inspector has admitted serious concern at the poor quality of the service.

In many cases officers are failing to consider the safety of abused partners and children living in the household.

There were also fears that sensitive information about victims was not being stored properly and could be "accessed inappropriately", said the study.

Police receive a domestic violence call every minute of the day, and two women are killed by their partner or ex-partner every week.

Sub-standard

Inspectors based the report on visits to Hertfordshire, Essex, Teesside, County Durham, Gwent, South Wales and Staffordshire probation areas.

Jane Keeper, director of operations for support charity Refuge, said the findings were "worrying".

Chief Inspector of the Probation Service Andrew Bridges admitted the quality of plans on how to manage the risks posed by those who beat their partners were "poor".

This area of work was rated "good" in just 21% of cases sampled by the inspection team and none were rated "excellent".

The risk of harm to any children in the household was analysed in only 59% of cases, the study found.

There's a whole list of failings in the practice of probation officers which are really quite worrying Jane Keeper, Refuge

Initial assessments of the likelihood of offenders causing further harm to their partners were also generally sub-standard, it found.

When probation officers looked into an abuser's history "in most cases there was a superficial discussion with the offender that was then not cross-checked against other sources," including previous probation records.

The most common reason given for this was lack of time.

There were also "serious concerns" that records, including sensitive information about victims, were not being stored properly.

When planning how to intervene in cases, only a third of cases sampled gave sufficient consideration to victims' safety.

Only 27% of cases were re-assessed after an incident took place which gave cause for concern.

Ms Keeper said the findings were reminiscent of past problems within other public services, which had since been "thoroughly challenged".

She said other agencies like the police had worked hard to get rid of attitudes that minimised the importance of domestic violence.

"There's a whole list of failings in the practice of probation officers which are really quite worrying," she said.

A Bill designed to overhaul legislation on domestic violence legislation is currently before Parliament.