Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to bring forward additional support services for survivors of rape.

Rape and sexual violence are devastating crimes that can have life-long impacts on victims and survivors. Following the publication of the End to End Rape Review Action Plan last year, this Government has committed to ensuring that every victim of rape and sexual assault will have access to quality support, appropriate to their needs, when they need it. We have increased the funding for victim and witness support services to £192 million by 2024/25. This represents an uplift of 92% on core budgets in 2020/21. We are using additional ringfenced funding to increase the number of Independent Sexual Violence Advisors (ISVAs) and Independent Domestic Violence Advisors (IDVAs) by 300 to over 1000 by 2024/25 - a 43% increase on the number of ISVAs and IDVAs over the next three years.

This Government provides core funding through the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund to over 75 support services run by independent organisations across England and Wales. Funding has been extended until March 2023 whilst we undertake targeted research with rape victim-survivors to better understand their support needs, both within and outside the criminal justice system, to inform the recommissioning of these services.

In addition, this Government is establishing a remote, national 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Service. This will be a free support service to all victims and survivors aged 16 and over across England and Wales, operating 24 hours a day, 365 days per year. Support will be available through website, webchat, online resources, and telephone helpline.

To support victims at the court stage, this Government has also announced a pilot of enhanced specialist sexual violence support in the Crown Court. The pilot will run in three Crown Court centres – Snaresbrook in London, Leeds, and Newcastle – which we have chosen because of the high volume of sexual offences cases they are tackling. These court centres will be enabled with the technology to allow victims to give pre-recorded evidence, so they are not retraumatised by giving evidence in a live trial, with court staff who have received trauma-informed training available.