UK election 2015: Labour publishes proposals for victims' law, Labour Proposals for victims law, UK election News updates, United Kingdom general polls, UK Election news 2015

UK election 2015: Labour publishes proposals for victims' law

Crimes will be reportable at places other than police stations and judges empowered to prevent vulnerable witnesses enduring excessive cross-examination, under Labour proposals for a victims’ law published on Tuesday. There will be mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse and police officers will have to record all allegations of crimes, it also recommends.

Written by a taskforce led by Lady Doreen Lawrence, the former Thames Valley chief constable Peter Neyroud and the former director of public prosecutions Sir Keir Starmer QC, the document contains 14 recommendations for improving the way victims of crime are dealt with by the criminal justice system.

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The programme, published in the runup to the general election, is backed by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, and the shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan.

Labour and the Conservatives are vying to offer more victim-supportive policies; with both promising a victim’s law in the next parliament.

Starmer, who is now a Labour candidate in the safe London seat of Holborn and St Pancras, has pioneered some aspects of the plan in his previous role as head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

Labour’s recommendations, however, move well beyond what exists. The problem,its report says, is that “our criminal justice system does not serve victims well. Many victims, particularly victims of personal or sexual violence, lack the confidence to come forward to report crime, lack adequate support if they do so and face an unacceptable ordeal in the court room if their case gets that far”.

For example, the report notes, an estimated 85% of the most serious sexual offences committed between 2007 and 2012 were never reported to police. Similarly, too few domestic violence incidents are recorded by police.

Because police stations “can often be an intimidating and therefore unlikely place for victims of personal and sexual violence” to approach, other locations – such as sexual assault referral centres – should be made available, it recommends.

Judges will be given a statutory duty to prevent victims’ and witnesses being mistreated in court through a requirement to hold a preliminary hearing that sets limits on certain lines of questioning.

It will take effect in cases involving oral evidence from a child, a complainant in a sexual offence case, or other witnesses considered vulnerable.

“There is growing evidence of the unacceptability of the conduct of some lawyers in court and some evidence of the failure of some judges properly to control proceedings (for example, in allowing repeated and highly aggressive cross-examination in cases of sexual violence),” the report says.

“Although we accept that this is by no means the norm, this needs to be tackled effectively.”

The taskforce comes out in favour of mandatory reporting of all suspected child abuse in specified circumstances, namely existing regulated activities.

Failure to report would be a crime but there would be a defence that “the individual in question had complied with the safeguarding policy relevant to him/her”.

The next government, Labour suggests, should consult on a requirement for the police to record every victim’s allegation of a crime immediately and ensure that a victim has access to the online record of the crime and progress of the investigation.

Other recommendations in the report include:

•   Police forces and prosecutors will be required to draw up area victims’ plans.
•   The existing victims’ code should be expanded.
•   There should be periodic reviews of “homicide cases where no one has been brought to justice as there has been an acquittal”.

Supporting the initiative, Miliband said: “For too long, victims and witnesses have been treated as an afterthought, or worse still ignored altogether.

“Victims lacking confidence and not coming forward means the wheels of justice grind to a halt … We will take this report and run with it in government, using it as the basis for the victims’ law we so desperately need.”

Khan said: “We can’t go on treating victims and witnesses so poorly. While the Tory-led government keeps letting down victims, Labour’s proposals would see a step change in the experiences of victims and witnesses.

“Only by giving victims and witnesses clear legal rights will police, prosecution services and courts change their culture so it is victim-centred.”

Mark Castle, chief executive of Victim Support, backed the move, saying: “As a charity offering support to more than a million victims of crime every year, we see first-hand how the criminal justice system doesn’t always deliver the justice they seek – as this important report highlights.

“We agree that mandatory reporting of suspected child abuse is a necessary measure, as are ‘ground rules hearings’ before trials in which victims of sexual violence, children and other vulnerable witnesses are to give evidence.”

src:theguardian

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