§ Mr. AmosTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the amount of support made available to victims of crime.
§ Mr. John PattenOur major financial commitment is through the criminal injuries compensation scheme, which 5W will pay over £125 million this financial year to victims of violent crime throughout Great Britan, the most generous such scheme in western Europe.
In addition, the Home Office makes a grant to the voluntary organisation Victim Support, chiefly to enable local victim support schemes to employ paid co-ordinators helping them to make the best use of volunteers. This year's grant is £5.7 million and we have announced plans to increase it to £7.3 million next year, an increase of 28 per cent., sustaining and reinforcing the present schemes and allowing some expansion into providing new services to support victims at court.
The third strand of our support for victims of crime is our work with the criminal justice services to improve their response to victims' needs, following up the victims charter which we published in 1990.