ONE person is arrested for domestic violence every 90 minutes in Lancashire, shock figures have revealed.

It has the sixth highest number of arrests in the UK -- more than Greater Manchester, Glasgow and Tyneside -- with 5,716 people taken into custody in the year to March 2004.

And with national figures suggesting a women suffers abuse 35 times before going to the police, there are fears the true level of domesticviolence is far higher.

Police today said the high figure was due to a policy of considering arrest at every incident of domestic violence. But they also said there was a small but significant number of cases of women attacking men, many of whom were too embarassed to call police.

The charity Women's Aid said the force's approach revealed the true extent of the problem.

But it said more had to be done as just two out of every 100 people arrested were convicted.

Lancashire detects 27 per cent of crime but domestic violence is difficult to 'solve' due to the reluctance of victims to give evidence.

The figures on arrests were revealed by Home Office Minister Baroness Scotland in the House of Lords.

The highest number of arrests were in the West Midlands, with 8,594), followed by West Yorkshire, 8,571; Merseyside, 7,395; the Metropolitan police, 6,118), and Staffordshire, 6,063.

After Lancashire came Northumbria, 5,549, and Greater Manchester, 5,490.

Detective Inspector Neil Hunter, head of the public protection unit for East Lancashire, said: "By taking action at the earliest opportunity it gives protection to the victim and the opportunity to feed in domestic violence voluntary groups and officers to provide support.

"Also we are more likely over time to achieve a prosecution because if there is a cooling off period you tended to get the situationwhere couples got back together."

He said the force was also prosecuting without the victim's consent, adding: "Fifty per cent of murders in Lancashire are domestic violence, so if we feel it may prevent a serious offence in the future, then that is what we will do.

Rossendale and Darwen MP Janet Anderson said: "The police must intervene as early as possible to change offending behaviour."

Burnley MP Peter Pike added: "This is a very different approach from when I first became MP 20 years ago. Then they didn't take domestic violence seriously."