§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
What is the remit of the Northern Ireland Office Victims Liaison Unit Touchstone Group; what is its membership; and what are the geographical location and remit of each member. [HL3391]
§ Lord Williams of MostynThe Touchstone Group was established in July 1998 by the then Victims Minister, Adam Ingram, to enable a cross-section of those representing victims' interests to provide government with advice and guidance on policy development in this area.
Membership was drawn mainly from those victims' groups which had made contact with Sir Kenneth Bloomfield in his role as Victims Commissioner. Individual membership tended to change from meeting to meeting (a list of the groups represented as at January 1999 follows).
The group has not met since October 2000, following a decision by Adam Ingram to evaluate its role in light of the ongoing developments in the victims' field. The Victims Unit in OFMDFM, the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission's Victims Rights Working Group and the Civic Forum had all been established and the provision of core funding by the NIO had led to a growing number of victims' groups.
Adam Ingram consulted with Ministers in the devolved administration who agreed to include a question on the future of the Touchstone Group in their consultation paper for a cross-departmental victims' strategy which was launched on 11 April 2002.
163WAGovernment policy on the future of the Touchstone Group will be co-ordinated with the devolved administration's strategy.
MEMBERSHIP OF THE TOUCHSTONE GROUP AS APPEARED IN VLU's NEWSLETTER JANUARY 1999.
Group
- An Crann/The Tree
- Cost of the Troubles Study
- Cúnamh
- Disabled Police Officers Association
- Families Acting for Innocent Relatives *
- Families Against Intimidation and Terror
- Kairos
- Relatives for Justice
- Shankill Stress Centre
- Social Services Inspectorate
- Sperrin Lakeland Health Trust
- Survivors of Trauma
- Victim Support NI
- WAVE
- Victims Liaison Unit
* Families Acting for Innocent Relatives was asked to be represented but refused to take its seat (this information did not appear in the newsletter).
§ Lord Lairdasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether the recommendation of the Victims Commissioner (Sir Kenneth Bloomfield) that the effective targeting of the special needs of victims should be a specific subset of the targeting social need objective has been implemented; and, if so, what progress there has been. [HL3494]
§ Lord Williams of Mostyn"To provide support to victims of the Troubles" was included as an objective in the New Targeting Social Need (New TSN). The actions associated with this objective are: to distribute funding for groups supporting victims of the Troubles;164WA and to work with the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund to explore the possibility of developing and funding programmes to assist disadvantaged victims of the Troubles.
To date, Government have allocated £6.1 million core funding for victims and survivors groups; £225,000 initially for a victims support grant scheme to assist community groups and voluntary organisations to take forward recommendations in the Bloomfield report and more recently a further £750,000 to extend this small grants scheme; £3 million to the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, with a commitment of a further £2 million at a rate of £1 million per year for the next two years. The fund has put in place a number of schemes, including: the Small Grants Scheme, the Education & Training Scheme, the Respite Break Scheme, the Amputee Assessment Scheme, the Wheelchair Assessment Scheme and the Chronic Pain Management Scheme.