Health Services: Sexual Offences
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding the NHS plans to provide to help support patients who are victims of sexual violence in the 2025-26 financial year, excluding funding provided by the Ministry of Justice.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The National Health Service provides support for victims and survivors of sexual violence through a range of services including mental health services and sexual assault referral centres (SARCs) which provide crisis care, medical and forensic examinations and onward referral to other support services.
Integrated care boards and NHS trusts commission support for patients who are victims of sexual violence, working in partnership with local authorities and police and crime commissioners. Figures on this local commissioning spend are not available nationally.
At national level, NHS England spent £57.6 million on SARCs in 2024/25. In addition, NHS England regions commission voluntary sector organisations to support victims and survivors, totalling £4.5 million in 2024/25. Total funding for the current financial year will be published approximately 12 months following the financial year’s end and will detail accounts and actual spending.
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