Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Independent Sexual Violence Advisers have been recruited by his Department since 19 October 2022.

The MoJ provides ringfenced funding to Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), and we are committed to increasing the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) by 300, to over 1,000, by 2024/25 – a 43% increase on the number of ISVAs and IDVAs over this spending review period (2022/23 to 2024/25 inclusive).

The MoJ is currently providing funding for 900 ISVA and IDVA posts. PCCs also use their ‘core’ funding and ringfenced Domestic Abuse/Sexual Violence funding to recruit and retain additional posts.

PCCs report bi-annually to the MoJ in line with commissioning arrangements. The latest information we hold covers the period 1 April to 30 September 2022 and therefore does not cover the period requested. End of year data is currently being collated.