The MJCA is a good example of a Government ministry who uses data and statistics on family violence to allow the Family Court to see where the biggest need is concentrated and to identify and utilize programmes that cater for that demand.89 Nonetheless MJCA recognized data collection as an ongoing challenge. The Inquiry overall, found a very poor standard of record keeping and data collection across Ministries and NGOs, which severely undermines the ability to implement effective programmes and responses. The main sources of family violence related data – the DVU, SFHSS 2000 and SFSS 2017 are flawed, and a greater understanding of statistics and appreciation of their importance is required. The statistics held by the DVU are widely reported, including to the UN international human rights bodies. However, these figures are almost certainly an under-representation of the true number of matters reported to the police. Evidence given by MoP before the Inquiry confirmed that only cases reported directly to the DVU in Apia are counted towards those numbers. Any matters reported to the police outposts in the villages (or Savaii as a whole) would not be counted. Furthermore, offences such as rape would also not be included as this is recorded in the statistics of the Criminal Investigations Division of the MoP. The extent of the failings is laid clear in the differences of the numbers of domestic violence reported by the DVU and the Division for Policy and Planning of the MoP. The DVU reported 375 cases of domestic violence in 2013 and 469 in 2014. However, the DPP reports 2,892 cases of domestic violence across the financial year 2013/2014, significantly higher than that reported by the DVU. This has two important consequences. The first is that in widely publicizing the erroneous DVU statistics the Government is underplaying the severity of the problem Samoa faces – essentially covering up the extent of the violence. The second is that any strategic planning and accompanying budgeting will not be sufficient, as it will be based on figures which are much lower than reality, yet further allowing family violence to continue. The erroneous use of statistics in addressing (or failing to address) family violence does not only apply to MoP. “The Family Safety Study is the baseline data for future family violence work.” MWCSD Inquiry submission, Inquiry document 1 Quite rightly MWCSD seeks to establish baseline data from which their programmes and strategic priorities can be identified. This is certainly the right intention but the Inquiry has found failings in both the SFHSS 2000 and SFSS 2017 studies, which raise concerns about the quality of data collection and therefore the subsequent strategic decisions upon which they are based. The SFHSS 2000 was carried out by the SPC and drew upon their access to expert statisticians. Consequently, the data collection and analysis was of a reasonably high degree and accepted standards were applied to ensure statistical significance. However, errors still crept in, including basic errors of putting numbers in the wrong columns. This occurred when reporting the percentages of victims and nonvictims who lived in rural or urban areas. The report then went on to conclude that “abused respondents 89 MJCA Inquiry public hearing presentation. Document 32 Inquiry anthology.