UPDATED 6.58am A Labour MP isn't buying the government's argument that it's unsure about whether its response to domestic violence is effective.

LISTEN ABOVE: Labour associate spokesperson for justice and sexual and domestic violence Poto Williams talks to Andrew Dickens

The government spends 1.4 billion a year responding to family and sexual violence.

Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of that response, and documents released under the Official Information Act show the government's largely in the dark.

Labour's associate justice spokeswoman Poto Williams told Andrew Dickens all of the money is being poured into services that have a common theme.

"They sit within government agencies anyway through Child Youth and Family, relationships with community through the Police or Corrections, so I'm not entirely buying that argument."

She said the government's always asked for accountability with funding.

Ms Williams said there are a number of factors contributing to domestic violence.

"Whanau Ora is not the answer. The answer is actually the government departments having a response in the conjunction with the community response."

A new pilot scheme in Christchurch to tackle family violence will see NGOs and government agencies collaborate to provide increased support to high-risk victims and create a better integrated response.

Women's Refuge have described the pilot as one of the most ambitious and promising schemes yet.

CEO Ang Jury said unlike other ideas being trailed this will have oversight, meaning a there'll be a centralised information portal.

She said currently we have different information and figures from police and refuge, but this will bring those figures together.

Ms Jury said it should make services much more seamless, and create an "easier flow of information".

"And the information should be quicker and I think those two things are really important."

She said Women's Refuge have been in discussions with police around the scheme for a while.

Canterbury police believe it will help them with risk assessment work in family violence cases.

13 agencies will be taking part in the scheme and police district commander, John Price said it will give a clearer picture about what's happening in households, rather than just what police see when they respond to incidents.

He says it's about understanding why.

"There is often a lot of causation in behind that, there's a lot of factors as to why people are hurting each other, and if we can understand what that is, then you can prevent it."