§ Chris RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much was spent by his Department supporting victims of(a) crime and (b) domestic violence in each of the last 25 years; and what the planned budgets for each are as a result of the Spending Review for each police authority area in England and Wales. [186136]
§ Ms BlearsThe information is as follows:
(a) A large part of the budget of the criminal justice agencies goes to help support victims of crime—it is estimated that around £650 million is invested at national level. However, it is not possible to break down the specific amounts, or to separate different types of crime. The following table shows the expenditure over the last 25 years that can be identified as being directly allocated from the Home Office to support victims of crime.
879W
Allocation to organisations directly supporting victims Financial Year Total (£ million) 1978–79 14.624 1979–80 17.658 1980–81 24.402 1981–82 25.238 1982–83 33.203 1983–84 36.635 1984–85 39.518 1985–86 46.068 1986–87 53.979 1987–88 60.563 1988–89 79.602 1989–90 85.696 1991–92 162.432 1992–93 173.702 1993–94 191.081 1994–95 202.940 1995–96 208.820 1996–97 240.829 1997–98 234.841 1998–99 229.437 1999–2000 247.466 2000–01 267.368 2001–02 326.535 2002–03 268.110 (b) The Home Office also provides funding for numerous initiatives and pilot projects including the Road Traffic pilot projects and support for victims of human trafficking. The Home Office also announced in April 2004 that it would provide additional funding of £4 million over two years, specifically to boost the development of services for victims of sexual offending, including developing and extending the network of Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCs).
(c) The Government are committed to tackling domestic violence. The Home Office is spending £14 million on domestic violence in the 2002 Spending Review period (2003–04 to 2005–06). This money is being used to help support victims, bring perpetrators to justice and prevent domestic violence in the first place, all of which will help make victims and their children safer. In earlier spending rounds, domestic violence related projects have included the piloting of a range of interventions through the Violence Against Women Initiative, part of the £10.7 million Crime Reduction Programme.
(d) Spending programmes and support for police authorities from the provisions of the 2004 Spending Review are under consideration.