A COUNCILLOR says there is “more work to do” to combat domestic abuse after figures revealed an increase in the number of incidents reported to the police throughout Renfrewshire’s communities.

The figures came to light in a Police Scotland scrutiny report that was presented to members of Renfrewshire Council’s Housing and Community Safety Policy Board at a meeting in the council chambers last week.

The statistics in the report show a rise of 13.8 per cent; from April to October 2016 there were 1,385 domestic abuse incidents reported to the police – up from 1,217 on the corresponding time period the previous year.

The SNP’s Mags MacLaren, councillor for the Paisley North West ward, is concerned over the increase but welcomed that victims may now be more confident to report the matters.

She told The Gazette: “It is a concern that there has been a rise of 13.8 per cent of the number of domestic abuse cases reported to the police.

“Although there is a concern that there has been an increase in the number of domestic abuse cases reported to the police, part of this increase may be that people are more confident to report such abuse when it happens.

“There have been a number of campaigns to encourage victims of domestic abuse to come forward and this may have had an impact in some of the figures but it is still important that anyone who feels threatened with domestic abuse comes forward.

“These figures highlight that there is still more to do to make people realise that domestic abuse is not acceptable”.

The number of incidents includes victims reporting multiple offences and the reporting of historical incidents.

Although more incidents are being reported to the police, the figures revealed at the council meeting also showed the percentage of those that resulted in a crime being recorded were down to 44.2 per cent from 50 per cent.

Marianne Osborne, Refuge Support Worker at Renfrewshire Women’s Aid, said: “We have been here since 1988 and I would certainly say that people are a lot more confident in reporting incidents to the police than they were previously.

“Maybe 20 years ago following domestic incidents people would have been told to walk round the block and calm down, but these incidents are now taken very, very seriously by Police Scotland.

“Crimes recorded nationally from these types of incidents are now at 50 per cent, and what is also really good is that Police Scotland are excellent at referring victims on to crisis support.

“There is more support in place now so even when a crime can’t be recorded there is somewhere for them to turn.”