Consultation outcome

Revising the Victims’ Code

• From: Ministry of Justice
• Published: 16 July 2015
• Last updated: 18 December 2015 — See all updates

This consultation has concluded

Download the full outcome

Government response to consultation (web version)

PDF, 506KB, 28 pages

Government response to consultation (print version)

PDF, 506KB, 28 pages

Code of practice for victims of crime

PDF, 755KB, 104 pages

Code of practice for victims of crime (Welsh version)

PDF, 956KB, 106 pages

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Impact assessment

PDF, 536KB, 17 pages

Equalities statement

MS Word Document, 121KB

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Detail of outcome

We proposed and have subsequently made 3 main amendments to the Victims’ Code:

• to broaden our definition of a victim so that victims of all criminal offences are eligible to receive services under the Code
• to extend application of the Code to other relevant investigative and prosecutorial organisations which perform functions covered by the Directive (new Chapter 5)
• to ensure that victims who report a crime receive a written acknowledgement

We also proposed and have made a number of other smaller changes. The majority of these either codify (for transposition purposes) what is already happening in practice or require small adjustments to existing policy or practice.

This report summarises the responses, including how the consultation process influenced the final version of the Victims’ Code.

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Original consultation

Summary

This consultation is an opportunity for you to have your say on changes to the Victims’ Code.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
16 July 2015 to 11:59pm on 15 August 2015

Consultation description

The code of practice for victims of crime is central to our strategy for transposing the EU Victims’ Directive (2012/29/EU) which establishes minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, and which comes into force on 16 November 2015. We are therefore seeking your views on what are technical changes required for compliance.

The consultation includes proposals to:

• extend the services offered under the code to victims of any criminal offence, not just victims of the more serious criminal offences that are notifiable under the National Crime Recording Standards (NCRS)
• make sure that victims are entitled to receive support and information from relevant public sector investigative and prosecutorial organisations, not just the police and Crown Prosecution Service
• make sure that a victim who reports a crime receives a written acknowledgment which states the basic elements of the criminal offence concerned

We are also proposing to make a number of smaller amendments to the Victims’ Code, which are described in the appendix to the consultation document.

Published 16 July 2015
Last updated 18 December 2015 + show all updates

1. 18 December 2015

   Code of practice for victims of crime (Welsh version) added to page.

2. 22 October 2015

   Updated to include consultation response, code of practice for victims of crime, impact assessment and equalities assessment.

3. 16 July 2015

   First published.