Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps her Department is taking to support organisations that assist victims of sexual violence.

We are committed to ensuring that victims and survivors of VAWG get the support they deserve. This year, the Government is providing approximately £300 million for victim and witness support services.

The Ministry of Justice alone has provided £150.5m for victim and witness support services. This funding includes £50m to increase support for rape and domestic abuse victims and recruitment of more Independent Sexual Violence Advisers to help victims feel informed and supported at every stage of their recovery journey.

This year, the Home Office is providing nearly £200k to the National Sexual Violence Support Fund to support victims and survivors of rape and sexual violence. The Home Office is also providing £120k to the Revenge Porn Helpline to support victims of non-consensual intimate image sharing, colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’.

Also, the Government recognises the significant pressure that support services are under and are working closely with them to monitor levels of demand. The Ministry of Justice has increased core funding for rape support centres by 50%, from £8 million to £12 million per annum, and extended the Rape Support Fund until March 2023 to ensure support services have the funding stability they need.

It is hoped that the forthcoming Spending Review will provide long term funding certainty for departments and by extension, the organisations we support through funding.