To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what financial help has been given by his Department towards the establishment and running of women's refuges in the Greater London area in each of the last three years; [36146]
(2) if he will list the number of women's refuges in each London borough. [36152]
Information on the number of refuges is not routinely collected. However, in 1995 the then Department of the Environment commissioned Women's Aid Federation (England) to undertake a census and their information relating to the London Boroughs from this census is in the table.Refuges are generally funded not from central Government but from rents, charitable sources, local authority housing and social services payments. In London, the London Boroughs Grants Unit may provide financial help and, where London Boroughs identify the development of refuges as a priority, Housing Corporation capital and revenue resources can contribute to building and housing management costs. The Home Office does not hold funds for the support of such refuges and no such grants have been made over the last three years.
| Refuge provision in London: 1995 | |
| London Borough | Total |
| Barking and Dagenham | 1 |
| Barnet | 1 |
| Bexley | 3 |
| Brent | 3 |
| Bromley | 4 |
| Camden | 4 |
| Croydon | 3 |
| Ealing | 2 |
| Enfield | 4 |
| Greenwich | 7 |
| Hackney | 6 |
| Hammersmith and Fulham | 3 |
| Haringey | 6 |
| Harrow | 1 |
| Hillingdon | 1 |
| Hounslow | 5 |
| Islington | 3 |
| Kensington and Chelsea | 3 |
| Kingston | 2 |
| Lambeth | 5 |
| Lewisham | 6 |
| Merton | 7 |
| Newham | 4 |
| Redbridge | 1 |
| Southwark | 4 |
| Sutton | 3 |
| Tower Hamlets | 3 |
| Waltham Forest | 3 |
| Wandsworth | 4 |
| Westminster | 4 |
| Total | 106 |