A new Sexual Assault Referral Centre should be completed by the summer.

Home Affairs and Justice Minister Graham Cregeen said he was ’frustrated’ at the lack of progress on the project.

He wrote to Tanya August-Hanson MLC after she raised concerns that victims of sexual assault are still having to travel across for a forensic examination.

She cited a harrowing case in Tynwald last month about an 18-month-old child who had been the victim of an allleged assault.

Ms August-Hanson said that it was ’entirely inappropriate’ that it took a full week before the child and her mother were flown to Manchester - during the Covid pandemic.

’All that evidence could well have been lost, resulting in inconclusive examination results - which is precisely what happened,’ she said.

Mr Cregeen said: ’I am also frustrated at the lack of progress to date.

’This was mainly due to key resources being refocused on other areas during the Covid period - we have effectively lost a year.’

But he said a dedicated project manager is now in place who recently briefed his department on progress.

’I am encouraged by the progress which has been made in a short period of time,’ Mr Cregeen told Ms August-Hanson.

’We have identified a site and work is underway to secure a firm handover date.

’Again, unfortunately, the progress has been hampered by the recent lockdown.’

The Minister said that the proposed site will require little clinical refurbishment so that the majority of the capital budget can be allocated to equipment and other facilities.

’We have a detailed project implementation plan and a first-draft layout has been shared with clinicians and other colleagues,’ he said.

’We had hoped to go to tender for a contractor by the end of this month, but we have been subject to delay because of Covid.

’Nonetheless, I am still hopeful that the site will be completed by July/August this year.’

The Minister said a specification for the service which will run the new centre has been agreed.

This will following standards set out by the UK’s forensic science regulator and the Faculty of Forensic and Legal Medicine.

He said that operating a facility to these standards will be challenging, in particular ensuring clinicians can maintain their professional standards.

Mr Cregeen ended his letter by saying: ’It is not acceptable that victims of sexual assault should have to travel to the UK for a forensic examination but we must acknowledge that our island context provides a number of challenges.

’Victims of sexual assault in the Isle of Man deserve better facilities here and I am determined to make that happen.’