The Ministry of Justice has awarded £8.7 million to Rape Crisis England and Wales to continue the national 24/7 Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Line. According to the government announcement, the grant will run from 1 October 2026 to 30 September 2029 and will keep a free, confidential and trauma-informed service available across England and Wales for people aged 16 and over. In practical terms, the decision secures a national point of contact for victim-survivors seeking immediate emotional support outside standard service hours, whether or not they have reported an offence to the police.
The Ministry of Justice said the helpline has handled more than 200,000 calls and 75,000 webchats since launching in 2022. That gives the funding decision wider policy weight: it extends a service that government and specialist providers can already point to as an established part of the victim support system. For public bodies, the usage figures underline sustained demand for specialist sexual violence support. For victim-survivors, they indicate that the service is operating at national scale rather than as a limited referral line.
The support line offers confidential listening and emotional support to anyone aged 16 or over affected by rape, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, sexual harassment or any other form of sexual violence at any point in their life. The government notice states that helpline specialists can also direct callers and webchat users towards longer-term support services. The new grant is intended to fund further development as well as day-to-day delivery. The Ministry of Justice said this will include British Sign Language interpretation and more tailored support for survivors with different needs, widening access beyond the standard telephone and webchat model.
In the government statement, the Minister for Victims and Violence Against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, said survivors too often feel unsure where to turn after rape or sexual assault. The minister presented the helpline as a dependable route into support, with an emphasis on being heard, believed and given clear information about next steps. That framing places the grant within the government's wider violence against women and girls agenda rather than treating it as a standalone charity award. The Ministry of Justice explicitly links the decision to its stated aim of halving violence against women and girls and improving the speed of justice for victims.
Rape Crisis England and Wales chief executive Ciara Bergman said the organisation will continue to provide the national service and pointed to existing call volumes as evidence of trust in the model. Her statement, published by the Ministry of Justice, also highlighted the role of staff, volunteers and partner organisations in maintaining specialist support at any time of day or night. Operationally, the three-year grant gives the organisation a defined funding window through to September 2029. That timetable matters for staffing, training, service development and coordination with local specialist providers that receive onward referrals from the helpline.
The announcement also places the funding alongside wider Ministry of Justice measures on sentencing and victim support. The government said rape, certain child sexual offences and other grooming offences will be excluded from upcoming changes to prison sentences, adding them to existing exclusions that already cover 18,000 offenders, including people serving life sentences and those judged by a court to be the most dangerous. Set out in the same release, that point is intended to show that the support-line funding sits within a broader justice package combining victim services with public protection measures. It also presents the announcement as part of a single policy approach spanning support, prosecution and sentencing.
The Ministry of Justice further said more than £550 million will be invested over the next three years in services for victims and witnesses, including counselling and practical help with attending court. Read alongside the helpline grant, the announcement suggests that immediate support, longer-term recovery services and court-facing assistance are being treated as connected parts of the same system. For victim-survivors in England and Wales, the immediate effect is straightforward: the national 24/7 support line will remain in place beyond September 2026. The service is available by telephone on 0808 500 2222 and via webchat, and the Ministry of Justice said the new funding will also extend access through British Sign Language interpretation and more tailored support.