Police chiefs call for 'wife-beater' list to crack down on domestic abuse

Chief constables say it will allow their officers to save lives by tracking violent partners wherever they move.

The true scale of domestic violence, which includes attacks by women on men, is 13million a year, police believe.

The estimate, equivalent to an attack every three seconds, is far higher than the number of women who report assaults.

Victim Support says it helped around 400,000 people last year but there were just 40,000 successful prosecutions.

Wiltshire's Chief Constable Brian Moore outlined the proposal for a domestic violence register to MPs yesterday.

He said: "There is no domestic violence abuse register on which perpetrators should be placed.

"I think it should be given considerable extra thought by virtue of the marked correlation between domestic violence and homicide or serious violence.

"Those who go from relationship to relationship across boundaries should be subject to amenable and proportionate tracking."

Mr Moore told Westminster's home affairs committee: "There is inadequate information sharing between agencies.

"Each agency may have part of the picture. But it is only when all these pieces of information come together from police, education, social services and from housing authorities that we have the clearest picture of those at risk.

"The law in this regard is inadequate. The law on information sharing is passive - there is no obligation to share when someone is at risk. We have to act now because year on year other people are losing their lives because of this gap in the law."

It is likely to mirror the sex offender register, which contains the names of 30,000 paedophiles and perverts.

They are forced to tell authorities whenever they move house, and stay in regular contact with the police.

Failing to keep their details up to date is a criminal offence carrying a possible prison sentence.

Serious offenders can be kept on the register for life.