Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much funding from the Victims Surcharge has been allocated to charities in the Midlands.

Revenue from the Victim Surcharge forms only one part of the Ministry of Justice’s Victim and Witness budget. This budget is used to fund support services that help victims to cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime. The budget also funds services to help witnesses to give their best evidence in court. In 2018/19 the Victim and Witnesses budget was about £96m, of which £30.5m was revenue raised from the Victim Surcharge. Most of this money went to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) to commission/deliver local services for victims of crime. The rest of the budget is used to nationally commission support services, including the National Homicide Service, the Court Based Witness Service and support for victims of rape and sexual violence. It is not possible to identify which services receive funding directly from the Victim Surcharge revenue. However, the table below sets out the value of grants covering the Midlands in 2018/19.

* The Government is funding rape support centres in this area from 2019/20