An extra £1.3 million is being sought to deliver Jersey’s new centre for victims of rape and sexual assault, taking its proposed budget to almost £7.3 million.
Groundworks are now due to begin at the end of November, with completion expected by March 2028, after construction had previously been anticipated to start in February this year.
The proposed Government Budget for 2027–2030 confirms that funding for the Sexual Assault Referral Centre would increase from £5.991 million to £7.291 million following the construction tender process.
It says the development will be supported by the Criminal Offences Confiscation Fund and money redirected from “non-critical maintenance work”.
Responding to the Children, Education and Home Affairs Scrutiny Panel’s Budget review, Home Affairs Minister Helen Miles confirmed that planning permission had been granted and procurement completed, with the resulting financial gap being addressed through the proposed Budget.
She said: “Groundworks are due to commence at the end of November, with completion currently estimated at end of Quarter 1 2028.”
The new facility would replace Dewberry House in St Saviour, which opened in 2017 following a recommendation from the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry and was subsequently deemed no longer fit for purpose.
It is planned for the former Heathfields Children’s Centre site, on the corner of Bagatelle Road and Bagatelle Lane in St Saviour.
The development would bring the referral centre under the same roof as Jersey Domestic and Sexual Abuse Support and Jersey Victims First, so survivors would only need to recount their experience once.
It had originally been hoped that the new centre would be built by May 2025, but plans were put on hold after rising construction costs pushed the project over budget.
In September that year, then-Home Affairs Minister Mary Le Hegarat said additional funding had been included in the government’s proposals for 2026, paving the way for tendering and construction.
“It is anticipated that the works can start in February 2026,” she told the States Assembly.
At the time, Deputy Le Hegarat attributed the additional costs to “inflation increases” and said there would be “no changes in relation to the building”.
Senator Miles’s latest submission lists opening the centre among the government’s principal milestones for improving community safety and Island resilience by 2030.
