Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to ensure that rape crisis centres are adequately funded.

The Government is committed to making sure that victims of crime have access to a broad range of support services, to help them cope with and, as far as possible, recover from the effects of crime.

We have made a commitment in the 2016–2020 Violence and Women and Girls strategy, to maintain funding for rape support services at 2016/17 levels for the remainder of the spending review period. We continue to meet that commitment.

This year we are providing £12.5m funding for services for victims of sexual violence, which includes £7.2m funding for rape support services.

This is part of the £96m we are spending in 2017/18 to fund support services for victims of crime across England and Wales, including £68m allocated to Police and Crime Commissioners to locally commission or provide support services for victims of crime, including victims of sexual violence.

This year we provided a 4.1% uplift in core funding for rape support centres to help meet increased demand. In Bristol, uplifts were provided to The Green House, Somerset and Avon Rape and Sexual Abuse Support (SARSAS) and Kinergy.