Police are denying that statistics on family violence will no longer be made publicly available after changing the way the crime is recorded.
Deputy police commissioner Mike Bush says domestic violence figures were not released last year because they were changing their method of gathering information to be in line with international best practice.
This meant the statistics police gathered for last year were not in line with the previous year.
Mr Bush says the new data will include information on the relationship the offender has with the victim and in the future will be publicly reported.
He says about half of serious crimes are family violence-related.
Concerns were raised by the head of Women's Refuge Heather Henare who was meeting with police on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the changes to the way the data is gathered.
Ms Henare says police have told her the current method for collecting statistics is unreliable.
She says she has also heard the move aims to make New Zealand's statistics more easily comparable with Australia's.
Ms Henare says Women's Refuge relies on the statistics to know what services it needs to provide and whether police are doing enough to fight domestic violence.
