A new centre is due to open in Gloucester to help victims of sexual assault and rape.

Hope House Sexual Assault Referral Centre (SARC) will provide a place where victims can receive medical care, counselling and police services.

It is thought SARC is the only centre in England connected to a hospital and its sexual health services.

A person who has experienced sexual assault or rape can visit SARC or can make contact by telephone. Source: The BBC.

Now there’s the problem the numbers set up are all 0845 numbers. The cost of phoning these numbers from a phone box or mobile is pretty expensive.

The Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) reported.

One concern is that 0845 services are often advertised as local rate calls, yet increasing competition for fixed-line telephone calls has resulted in a broad range of prices and discount call packages for local and national calls to geographic numbers. This means the cost of calling a 0845 number can be higher than the cost of a local call. The cost of calling these numbers may be unclear at the outset and leave vulnerable customers unaware of the actual cost of calling.

In a survey the SSAC conducted it found calls to 0845 numbers costing as much as 40 pence per minute from a pay as you go phone.

Surely the most important part of the new centre is access – charging people up to 40p a minute is surely one way to put people off. The SSAC also reports that Derbyshire Unemployed Workers’ Centres “earned” over £250,000 through revenue sharing from its use of 0845 numbers. I hope nobody thought we could make money out of rape victim’s phone calls.

Hat Tip: Pickled Politics.