Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Marie Rimmer and Laura Farris

Monday 15th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Ms Marie Rimmer (St Helens South and Whiston) (Lab)]

17. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the safer streets fund on the safety of women and girls.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department (Laura Farris)]

The objective of the safer streets fund and the safety of women at night fund is to enhance public safety in a direct and targeted way, neighbourhood by neighbourhood. Since 2020 the Government have invested £150 million across the two funds and the evaluation of round 1 of the safer streets fund, published in January last year, showed that the investment was boosting trust in the police and making communities feel safer.

[Ms Rimmer]

Does the Minister justify the Government cut of 38% of the funding for projects to reduce violence against women and girls in Merseyside? They have cut £400,000, and one project will have to cease.

[Laura Farris]

What I can tell the hon. Lady is that under the safer streets fund, £3.9 million has been allocated to Merseyside, including for a project in St Helens town centre. Let me remind her very gently of what that is funding. It has gone towards lighting, signage and improvement to taxi ranks, and one of the most radical measures of all is that it provides women with a free taxi service home, where the safer streets fund will reimburse the taxi driver the money they would otherwise have received, so that a woman does not have to find herself standing at a windy bus stop or walking home.