24 Hour Domestic Violence Help-line

The funding includes:

• £50,000 for Relate to equip 300 counsellors to respond effectively when victims of domestic violence come forward;
• £760,000 to continue funding the 38 Independent Sexual Violence Advisers being piloted across the country;
• £75,000 for Rape Crisis England and Wales; and
• £75,000 for The Survivors' Trust.

Twenty existing Sexual Assault Referral Centres - a one-stop-shop where victims can receive medical care and counselling and undergo a forensic examination - have also been invited to bid for funding of £15,000 each.

The funding comes on the back of a review of the specialist domestic violence courts. Ten of the 23 Specialist Domestic Violence Courts achieved a successful prosecution rate of over 70 per cent, with one reaching over 80 per cent and the remaining 12 achieving an average rate of 66 per cent.  The Review also found that:

•  An improvement in the responses of individual agencies: in relation to the police, a high level of domestic violence perpetrators being arrested (an average of over 80 per cent);
• Just under six thousand victim referrals were made to Independent Domestic Violence Advisers - an average of 269 referrals per IDVA service; and,
• Around three-quarters (74 per cent) of clients involved in the court process were supported by Independent Domestic Violence Advisers at court.