UP to 46,000 Scots, most of them women, will be put on a new national database in a bid to help police detect and prevent domestic abuse throughout the country.

The new Vulnerable Persons System, which will go online early next year, will ensure information and risk assessments of thousands of families will be shared across the country's eight forces.

The aim is to ensure details and concerns are flagged up across different force areas to help tackle domestic abuse and other crimes.

The system is one of a number of initiatives being developed by the Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland (Acpos) which will be under discussion at the Violence Reduction Unit's national domestic violence conference in Edinburgh today.

Bill Skelly, deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police and Acpos spokesman on domestic abuse, will explain to delegates why more needs to be done to protect victims.

Speaking to The Herald in advance of the conference, he said the database would also contain details of missing persons and he indicated it could hold details on every domestic abuse case recorded.

"There were 46,000 incidents of domestic abuse recorded in 2006-07 which equates to one every 11 minutes," he said. "This is far too many. This is a massive issue when you look at the scale of abuse and is one which predominantly affects women.

"This database means that if we have information on a family in Aberdeen and they move, then the information will move with them.

"We are already good at holding and sharing information on perpetrators, but we need to get better at doing it in relation to victims."

Mr Skelly also indicated that he would like to see Scotland's only domestic abuse court in Glasgow replicated in other cities. The specialist court was launched in October 2004 and is designed to speed up cases.

All cases referred to the court are assigned a date within six weeks of being called to trial, and the vast majority of the accused plead guilty before or during the trial.

"The court is still being evaluated but the feedback has been very positive and we would be keen to see it expanded and could see it replicated in Edinburgh, but the further afield you move, the more difficult it becomes to spread the best practice model," he said.

"In more remote areas it is not something which could be run full-time.

"The point of the conference is to highlight the impact of domestic abuse. While significant steps forward have been taken there is still some distance to go."

Almost nine in 10 incidents reported to police involve attacks on women by men, with minor assault the most common crime.

The news comes as Elish Angiolini, the Lord Advocate, yesterday revealed rape cases are to be investigated more like murder inquiries.

Police and prosecutors would work more closely together and take a "forensic" approach to cases, she said.

She published guidelines developed in consultation with Acpos on the Investigation and Reporting of Sexual Offences.

"Rape is one of the most serious and distressing crimes we face as a society," she said.

"That is why, with this guidance to the police, we will now see an approach to rape investigation which is, from the outset, much closer in form to the approach which is taken in investigating a homicide."

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