FOI Request
Does the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner current fund any support services for victims of non-criminal anti-social behaviour in the police force area?
If yes, please can you provide details of the service commissioned, including the funding provided and how many victims were supported last year.
FOI Response
- Does the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner current fund any support services for victims of non-criminal anti-social behaviour in the police force area?
In regard to your question above, I can confirm the OPCC commissions the Victim Care and Advice Service, delivered by Safer Communities, to offer free and confidential support for victims of both crime and anti-social behaviour, including non-criminal anti-social behaviour.
2. If yes, please can you provide details of the service commissioned, including the funding provided and how many victims were supported last year.
In regard to your question above in terms of funding, this information is already published on our website linked below and therefore your request is refused under Section 21(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
The information you seek was published in a Decision Record Notice approved by the Police and Crime Commissioner on 2 December 2022. It makes reference to the successful contractor and the value of the contract.
It is important to be aware the funding provided covers support for victims of both crime and ASB and therefore cannot be filtered to the specific amount of funding for support given to victims of non-criminal anti-social behaviour.
In terms of number of victims that were supported last year, I can confirm that during 2023/24 VCAS supported 1174 victims of ASB/Harassment/Neighbour disputes. Some of these will have been non-crime ASB and some will have crossed the criminal threshold, meaning they were recorded as a crime. Again, this is not something that can be filtered to specific number of victims of non-criminal anti-social behaviour.