Victims bill has ‘no teeth’, claims government adviser
A bill to put the rights of victims of crime into law has “no teeth”, according to the government’s adviser on the issue.
The Victims and Prisoners Bill will return to parliament this week, aiming to “fundamentally transform victims’ experience of the criminal justice system”, ministers have said.
The government has promised to put a code of practice into law to support victims, as well as giving the Ministry of Justice the power to inspect agencies failing them, and to create better oversight of all those involved with their treatment.
But Baroness Newlove, who has held the job of victims’ commissioner since October, has told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge the legislation is “not strong enough”.
Pic: iStock
Speaking to the Politics Hub, the Tory peer – who has campaigned on victims rights since her husband Gary was murdered in 2007 – said the code of practice for supporting victims should be “on the face of the bill” to ensure those involved “have access to services, they get communicated properly, [that victims] do understand what support systems are out there”.
She added: “As it stands now, the code is just seen as persuasive guidance. So unless you have legal rights in a legal system, none of the professionals will stand up and do anything for it if you don’t make it by law.”
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Baroness Newlove also said the victims’ commissioner needed to be given oversight of whether the code is being adhered to “instead of the agencies and Ministry of Justice and the police marking their own homework”.
Describing the bill as it stands, she added: “It has no teeth. It’s very weak. It came in that thin in the House of Lords.
“We’ve got to make sure that we give as much support and understanding and treat victims with dignity and respect.
“And as victims’ commissioner, I will keep on championing that and make sure we get some teeth in that bill, because otherwise it’s not worth the paper it’s written.”
A Ministry of Justice Spokesperson said: “This government is doing more than any other to improve the experiences of victims – including quadrupling funding for support services and improving training for staff who work with survivors.
“Our Victims and Prisoners Bill will place the foundations of the Victims’ Code on a statutory footing. This means that victims will be entitled to challenge decisions to not charge or continue a prosecution, receive information on how their case is progressing, and be signposted to relevant support services.
“However, we recognise that there is more to do, which is why alongside this landmark bill, we will be working with criminal justice bodies on a Victims’ Code campaign to better inform victims about their rights under the Code and to ensure their needs are met.”
Coinbase, Kraken, Ripple, a16z and others pressed the Senate to add explicit protections for developers and non-custodial services in the market structure bill.
Reform’s plan was meant to be detailed. Instead, there’s more confusion.
The party had grown weary of the longstanding criticism that their tough talk on immigration did not come with a full proposal for what they would do to tackle small boats if they came to power.
So, after six months of planning, yesterday they attempted to put flesh on to the bones of their flagship policy.
Politics latest: Farage rows back on pledge to deport illegal migrant women and girls
At an expensive press conference in a vast airhanger in Oxford, the headline news was clear: Reform UK would deport anyone who comes here by small boat, arresting, detaining and then deporting up to 600,000 people in the first five years of governing.
They would leave international treaties and repeal the Human Rights Act to do it
But, one day later, that policy is clear as mud when it comes to who this would apply to.
Nigel Farage launched an airport-style departures board to illustrate how many illegal migrants have arrived in the UK. Pic: PA
I asked Farage at the time of the announcement whether this would apply to women and girls – an important question – as the basis for their extreme policy seemed to hinge on the safety of women and girls in the UK.
He was unequivocal: “Yes, women and children, everybody on arrival will be detained.
“And I’ve accepted already that how we deal with children is a much more complicated and difficult issue.”
But a day later, he appeared to row back on this stance at a press conference in Scotland, saying Reform is “not even discussing women and children at this stage”.
Read more:
Farage has a new ‘leave’ campaign – here’s how it could work
He later clarified that if a single woman came by boat, then they could fall under the policy, but if “a woman comes with children, we will work out the best thing to do”.
A third clarification in the space of 24 hours on a flagship policy they worked on over six months seems like a pretty big gaffe, and it only feeds into the Labour criticism that these plans aren’t yet credible.
If they had hoped to pivot from rhetoric to rigour, this announcement showed serious pitfalls.
But party strategists probably will not be tearing out too much hair over this, with polling showing Reform UK still as the most trusted party on the issue of immigration overall.
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