The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird QC, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, have called on the government to provide essential funding to support victims’ services through to the end of the financial year.
The 3 November 2020 letter calls on the Ministry of Justice to launch a second round of extraordinary COVID-19 funding to support domestic abuse services during the latest lockdown and longer-term.
As the country once again moves into national lockdown conditions, the joint letter to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, Robert Buckland QC, praises the government for taking swift action during the last lockdown to help ensure that vital funds were made available to domestic abuse services.
To maximise the resources for frontline domestic abuse services, the two commissioners are calling on the government to address the instability facing services by guaranteeing longer-term funding of at least a year from March 2021 until March 2022.