The draft Victims Bill’s aim to improve the criminal justice system’s treatment of victims is laudable, but the Government must provide new funding to make it all possible. If not, the police, CPS and Probation Service will be forced to divert funds away from their core functions, the Justice Committee of MPs has warned.
In a report, the Committee says that the draft has victim of small-scale fraud considered a victim of crime for the purposes of the Bill but a parent whose child has been murdered is not. “This cannot be right,” the report says.
Justice Committee Chair Sir Bob Neill, Conservative MP for Bromley and Chislehurst, said: “The definition of a victim must be explained in more detail, particularly where it includes witnesses without any mention of how badly said witness has been affected. It can’t be the Government’s intention that a witness to petty theft should have more rights under this legislation than a murder victim’s next of kin.”
In its report the MPs doubted that the overarching principles, as drafted, are strong enough ‘to drive the necessary cultural change in the treatment of victims in the criminal justice system’.
Sir Bob Neill said: “The draft Bill comes amid a backdrop of significant and growing court backlogs with victims of crime too often waiting years for their cases to come to court, and criminal legal aid barristers turning away from the profession. The Government is taking steps in tackling those deep-rooted problems but until they are resolved victims will continue to suffer harm for too long.”
Background
In the 2021 Queen’s Speech the Government committed to bringing forward a Victims Bill to put into law the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime, improve victims’ experience of the criminal justice system and set expectations for the standard and availability of victim support for victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence. From December 2021 to February 2022, the Government consulted on how to support victims. On May 25, the Government published a draft Victims Bill and its response to the consultation; and asked the Justice Committee to undertake pre-legislative scrutiny.
Victims’ Commissioner
The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, a former Labour MP and Northumbria police and crime commissioner, Dame Vera Baird KC, wrote to the Justice Secretary Brandon Lewis on September 23 to inform him of her intention to end her term as Commissioner on September 30. In her letter, she complained that ‘the Victims’ Bill remains inadequate and the ‘British Bill of Rights’ so severely threatens victims’ human rights that it undermines what little progress the Victims’ Bill is set to bring.’
She write: “Further, little has been done to effectively tackle the enormous and catastrophic backlog of cases, particularly in the Crown Court where the most serious crimes are tried. This has exposed victims of these crimes to intolerable delay, anguish and uncertainty. It is no exaggeration to say that the criminal justice system is in chaos. This downgrading of victims’ interests in the government’s priorities, along with the side-lining of the Victims’ Commissioner’s office and the curious recruitment process make clear to me that there is nothing to be gained for victims by my staying in post beyond the current extension.”
