§ Viscount Montgomery of Alameinasked Her Majesty's Government:
What public funds are provided for Victim Support and what other help is being provided for victims of crime.
§ Baroness BlatchThe Government's funding of Victim Support has grown at a rate unprecedented for a voluntary organisation. Grant in the coming financial year will amount to nearly £11 million, an increase of 8 per cent. over the current year's figure. The record of our funding of Victim Support is as follows:
70WA
Year Grant Year on year increase Percentage increase £ Percentage 1979–80 5,000 n/a n/a 1980–81 10,000 5,000 100 1981–82 18,000 8,000 80 1982–83 16,000 -2,000 -11 1983–84 38,000 22,000 138 1984–85 62,000 24,000 63 1985–86 126,000 64,000 103 1986–87 286,000 160,000 127
Year Grant Year on year increase Percentage increase £ Percentage 1987–88 1,763,000 1,477,000 516 1988–89 2,740,000 977,000 55 1989–90 3,910,000 1,170,000 43 1990–91 4,735,000 825,000 21 1991–92 5,670,000 935,000 20 1992–93 7,260,000 1,590,000 28 1993–94 8,375,000 1,115,000 15 1994–95 10,016,000 1,641,000 20 1995–96 10,817,000 801,000 8 The additional funding given in 1994–95 and 1995–96 will enable Victim Support to complete the programme of establishing witness support services in all 78 Crown Court centres by the end of 1995, and to develop further the work of their 365 local schemes and branches which provide emotional support and practical help to over 1 million victims of crime a year throughout England and Wales.
We published the Victim's Charter five years ago today, the first charter to be published. Most of the 50 standards in the Charter have been, or are well on the way to being, met. This has done a great deal to improve the way victims are treated by the criminal justice system. And we will build on this by publishing later this year a statement of service standards for victims of crime. This will be a charter-style document telling victims more clearly what they can expect of the criminal justice system and what they can do if they do not get it.
The Government have taken a range of other measures to help victims of crime. These include giving them better information about progress in their case, and ensuring that their views are taken more into account at all stages of the criminal justice process. A good example of this was the establishment in December of a Victim's Helpline so that any victim concerned about an inmate's possible temporary release can tell the prison authorities. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 contained a number of measures designed to help victims and witnesses, including the abolition of committal proceedings and the creation of a new offence of witness intimidation. These, and many other measures, are firm evidence of the Government's concern for victims of crime and their continuing desire to improve services for them.