British Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday raised the possibility of random house visits to combat domestic abuse.

Mrs May said police visits could help deal with serial offenders.

She said there was evidence from New York in the US showing random visits by police to homes where domestic violence had taken place in the past resulted in a "significant decrease" in the number of incidents.

Giving evidence to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, she said: "I think there are measures we can be taking like that which could have a very real impact on cases of domestic violence."

Labour MP Bridget Phillipson highlighted the case of gunman Raoul Moat, asking what lessons could be learned in dealing with serial domestic violence offenders.

Mrs May said she did not want to comment on the Raoul Moat case specifically because of the ongoing Independent Police Complaints Commission investigations.

One of the investigations is looking into how information was handled between the prison and police services over threats made by Mr Moat against his ex-girlfriend.

The home secretary said there were "a number of issues" she wanted to look at around serial domestic offending, including the possibility of random visits.

She added there was often a "spectrum of activities" taking place around abuse, including stalking, and the issue needed to be looked at "quite widely".

In the past year, seven per cent of women and four per cent of men aged 16-59 were victims of domestic abuse, according to figures from the British Crime Survey released today.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: "The government is continuing to discuss the best approach to tackling violence against women.

"Serial perpetrators are one of a number of domestic violence issues we are exploring.

"We will consider the New York policing model, as well as other models and reviews, within these discussions."

Mrs May also said she was looking at rolling out a non-emergency 101 number. The 24-hour phone number is provided by some police forces and local councils to deal with non-emergency crime.

She said: "We are currently looking at the possibility of whether we could introduce a 101 number as a non-emergency number for the reporting of certain activities, like anti-social behaviour. That work is in hand."

Mrs May was asked about the possibility of allowing asylum seekers to work if their cases take longer than six months to be dealt with.

She said the aim was for the UK Border Agency to clear the backlog of cases by summer or autumn next year, adding: "My focus is on putting in place a system where we don't have people waiting too long."

Asked about the possibility of bonuses for senior staff at the UK Border Agency, given the backlog, she said: "In the current environment I'm not sure anybody is talking about bonuses."

Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York City Police Department (NYPD), said: "Several years ago, the NYPD instituted a programme in which households that had reported domestic violence were revisited by uniformed police officers to make certain the victim wasn't being further jeopardised by the abusive spouse or other relative.

"We think the visits were a factor in the subsequent reduction in domestic violence homicides.