With nearly 3,000 crimes recorded every day, a leading police chief has warned in a new report that violence against women and girls is now at emergency level.

More than one million violent crimes against women and girls were recorded by police in 2022/23, according to a report by the National Police Chiefs’ Council and the College of Policing.

The National Policing Statement for Violence Against Women and Girls found that such crimes accounted for nearly 20% of all police-recorded crimes excluding fraud in England and Wales between April 2022 and March 2023.

The report estimated that at least one in every 12 women will be a victim per year – equating to two million women – with the exact number expected to be much higher as some crimes go unreported.

The deputy chief executive of the College of Policing said violence against women and girls had “reached epidemic levels” in England and Wales and called for government intervention in the “overwhelmed” criminal justice system.

Deputy Chief Constable Maggie Blyth said the creation of a National Centre for Public Protection would support police forces with specialist knowledge and training for investigators and officers.

She added that the data from the National Policing Statement was “staggering”, with police records of violence against women and girls increasing by 37% from 2018/19 to 2022/23.

Ms Blyth said the criminal justice system was “under-performing for victims”, with the report saying violence against women and girls was at such a scale “it cannot be addressed through law enforcement alone".

One in 20 adults or 2.3 million people in England and Wales are perpetrators of such violence every year, the report estimated, with the actual number thought to be significantly higher.

The age of offenders is also getting younger, with the average age of a suspect for child sexual abuse and exploitation being 15.