MORE could be done to tackle domestic violence in North Yorkshire a new report has claimed.

A review by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC), shows 1,024 of 3,387 assaults with injury reported to North Yorkshire Police in the 12 months to the end of August 2013 were domestic abuse.

For every 100 domestic abuse crimes recorded in North Yorkshire, there were 72 arrests (national average between 45 and 90), and the force recorded 2,648 domestic abuse crimes in the same period. Of these, 34 per cent resulted in a charge, eight per cent in a caution and five per cent led to an out of court disposal.

Roger Baker, from the HMIC, said North Yorkshire Police had "effective working practices", but there were "still opportunities for further development".

He said: “The force’s initial response to domestic abuse is effective, however after this there is an inconsistent approach to risk assessment which means that all victims may not receive the future support and access to services they need."

The report praised the use of PCSOs to support victims of domestic abuse in the community, but criticised the fact that “There are no processes in place to identify serial perpetrators and no work to try to prevent future offending behaviour".

The report said more detail should be included when logging domestic abuse calls, with levels and types of vulnerabilities recorded.

Assistant Chief Constable Paul Kennedy said: “We acknowledge that there are areas for improvement and prior to the inspection, we had identified a number of areas where the service could be improved and have already taken steps to implement these changes.”