Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victim liaison officers have been employed to work in each region in each year since 1 June 2014.

Information is provided for each complete year since the formation of the National Probation Service in 2014. As explained in response to previous Questions, information relating to the preceding period is not available.

There are 573 Parliamentary constituencies in England & Wales. In 2015-16 and 2016-17, there were 169 Victim Liaison Officers in England & Wales (1 for every 3.4 constituencies); in 2017-18 there were 189 (1 for every 3 constituencies).

The following table provides a breakdown by NPS Division (Region).

Note: Figures in 2017-18 do not add up to total owing to rounding.

The Government is carrying out a review of the Transparency of the Parole Board and victim support, which we expect will be concluded by Easter, when will set out our next steps.

We have already made good progress in making victim contact more compassionate, clearer and more informative, the ongoing review will ensure we improve services and better support victims.

The staffing budget dedicated to the Victim Contact Scheme has increased from £8.0 million to £9.6 million since the creation of the NPS in 2014 and the number of VLOs has increased nationally from 169 to 189 staff over the same period.

There has also been a significant increase in the number of administrative staff, from 47 to 76 posts, employed to support the work of VLOs, which has freed up VLOs so they can focus on better supporting victims.