Achievements in promoting victims' and witnesses' rights
Better rights can help make the experience of being a victim much easier to deal with
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As well as helping victims and witnesses directly, Victim Support is here to help get a better deal for them.
Highlights of our work in promoting victim rights
- In February 2006, we responded to the Government's Green Paper, Rebuilding lives: supporting victims of crime, which contained several proposals to review how victims get compensation and support services. Our response was based on our experience of helping around 1.3 million people and supporting almost 400,000 witnesses each year. This work ultimately led to the Government helping us to significantly improve how we help victims with the introduction of a new way of working we call Victim Support Plus. Thanks to this, we can now contact victims much more quickly and effectively before, identify those with greater needs, and give much more practical help.
- In December 2003, victims' rights were introduced into legislation through the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill. We provided a number of briefings on key issues and closely monitored the Bill's progress through Parliament.
- In April 2004, we responded to the Government's consultation 'Compensation and support for victims of crime' which set out their plans for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS). Our response was based on our experience of helping nearly 20,000 applicants each year with criminal injuries compensation claims.