Sexual Offences: Coronavirus

(asked on 8th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the £5 million allocated through Police and Crime Commissioners to support sexual violence services during the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Alex Chalk Portrait
Alex Chalk
Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice
This question was answered on 11th June 2020

We are committed to ensuring victims and witnesses receive the support they need, and that sexual violence services are funded to provide this at this challenging time.

You will be pleased to hear that to ensure the adequacy of funding for sexual violence services at this time, there is in fact £10 million funding available for sexual violence support services during the COVID-19 outbreak, with £5 million allocated by PCCs and £5 million through the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund. This figure was established through close consultation with PCCs and sexual violence support service providers.

We have already committed an extra £4 million to Police and Crime Commissioners for Independent Sexual Violence Advisers (ISVAs), this year, as well as a 50% increase to the national Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund, to ensure that victims of sexual violence always have access to the services they need.

We have also made almost £600k of additional funding available to enable the expansion and national roll out of digital and helpline services, to ensure that all victims have access to services during this challenging time.

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