To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what grants he has made in each of the last five financial years to the National Association of Victims Support Schemes; and what assessment he has made of the effect of actual and planned changes in funding by his Department.

Home Office funding of victim support since 1986 has been as follows:

	Local victim support schemes	Victim support headquarters	Total	Annual increase
	£	£	£	per cent.
1985–86	—	126,000	126,000	—
1986–87	136,000	150,000	286,000	127
1987–88	1·60 million	103,000	1·70 million	494
1988–89	2·55 million	190,000	2·74 million	61
1989–90	3·70 million	210,000	3·91 million	43

This funding has enabled local victim support schemes to expand to cover 94 per cent. of the population of England and Wales with the following effects on provision of service:

	Number of schemes	Number of paid co-ordinators	Number of referrals	Number of Volunteers
1985–86	293	133	180,000	3,935
1986–-87	305	151	257,083	4,200
1987–88	294	180	328,174	5,900
1988–89	299	227	400,810	6,292
1989–90	355	300	1420,000	16,800
1 Estimates.

For 1990–91 the planned level of grant in aid subject to parliamentary approval is £4·47 million for local schemes and £235,000 for headquarters.