Honour Network Funding

EDM number 756 in 2009-10, proposed by John Leech on 01/02/2010.
Categorised under the topics of Charities and Marriage.

That this House notes with concern that the UK's only national telephone helpline dedicated to providing assistance to victims of forced marriage, the Honour Network, has had to stop taking evening and weekend calls due to a lack of funds; commends the important work carried out by the Honour Network whose staff are all survivors of forced marriages; recognises that the helpline received around 300 calls per month in 2009; further notes that a quarter of these were made on evenings or weekends; is concerned that it has already missed in excess of 70 calls in 2010 as a result of not being open on evenings and weekends; is further concerned that after initial support from the Forced Marriage Unit, Honour Network operations are now completely reliant on donations which cannot support it fully; acknowledges that the charity that oversees the Network, Karma Nirvana, estimates that the cost of keeping the helpline open all year round would only be £80,000 per year; believes that this represents excellent value for money for such a vital service; and calls on the Government to make up for this shortfall in funds in order to keep the helpline open.

This motion has been signed by a total of 29 MPs.