Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent progress he has made on plans to extend the funding of Victim Support beyond 2015.

The Ministry of Justice is extending grant funding arrangements to March 2015, for the provision of its core victims' support service. These extended arrangements will cover all areas until October 2014, when a small number of Police and Crime Commissioners will move out of MoJ grant arrangements with Victim Support. The remaining majority of areas will continue to be covered by the grant funding arrangements until end March 2015.

From April 2015, the MoJ grant arrangement with Victim Support for its core service will end as all Police and Crime Commissioners replace the MoJ grant arrangement with Victim Support with locally commissioned arrangements for support to victims. These arrangements may include Police and Crime Commissioner commissioning services from Victim Support, but are not restricted to this.

Some national services, including the national homicide service, the court-based witness service, the rape support fund, and some telephone helplines will remain nationally commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. Victim Support is the current provider of some of these services and is able to compete for future provision of these services.