THE Chamber of Commerce has lent its weight to a new domestic abuse strategy.

Deputies will debate the Policy Council proposal next week and Chamber director Barry Cash (pictured) said it fully supported the initiative.

‘We fully support the matter being handled in a sympathetic and empathetic way for the person concerned and indeed the workplace in general,’ he said.

The strategy will look to draw services from different States departments in an effort to generate a seamless approach to dealing with the increasing number of domestic abuse cases in the island.

Health and Social services minister Deputy Hunter Adam, chairman of the Social Policy Group, which has been put in charge of coordinating the strategy, said the island’s economy suffered an estimated £3.6m. loss each year as a result of victims of domestic abuse not attending work.

Mr Cash said that figure was impossible to know for certain, particularly because many cases went unreported.

‘While neither society nor the business community regard this as an acceptable crime, most instances of domestic abuse go unreported for many reasons and often out of fear of a break-up in the relationship – and all the hardship associated with it – being considered far worse than tolerating the abuse,’ he said.

‘Feelings of guilt and inadequacy also make victims very reluctant to come forward for help.

‘It is extremely difficult to put a cost to business of such abuse as there are no accurate figures and, as mentioned before, the reluctance of victims to come forward makes measurement virtually impossible to measure accurately.’