Victims and Courts Bill

I must draw the attention of the House to the fact that Lords amendments 4B and 4C engage Commons financial privilege. If either of those Lords amendments is agreed to, I will cause the customary entry waiving Commons financial privilege to be entered in the Journal.

Clause 12

Private prosecutions: regulations about costs payable out of central funds

I beg to move, That this House disagrees with Lords amendments 4B and 4C.

With this it will be convenient to discuss:

Government amendment (a) in lieu of Lords amendments 4B and 4C.

Lords amendments 5B, 5C, 5D, 5E and 5F.

Lords amendments 6B and 6C.

I am grateful once again to have the opportunity to speak on the Victims and Courts Bill. As I have said previously in this House, this is fundamentally a Bill for victims. Throughout the Bill’s passage, we have heard the experiences and views of victims and bereaved families and we have listened. I know for that fact that the Bill is now stronger because of this.

I am sure the whole House will join me in paying tribute to some of the victims’ campaigners who have been so instrumental in this Bill, some of whom are joining us in the Gallery today. First, I say to the families of Olivia Pratt-Korbel, Jan Mustafa, Zara Aleena and Sabina Nessa: I know that nothing will ever lessen the pain of such an immense loss, followed by the indescribable trauma of an offender who would not face you and would not face justice. We owe you a debt of thanks for your courage and fortitude in campaigning to ensure that offenders will always be forced to attend their sentencing hearings, and that offenders that refuse to attend are quite rightly punished appropriately. Thanks to you, criminals will never be allowed to hide away from justice, and you have ensured that others should never have to face what you have had to endure. This measure in the Bill is brought forward in the memories of Olivia, Zara, Sabina and Jan.

Secondly, I would like to pay tribute to Tracey Hanson and Katie Brett, who have worked tirelessly to ensure that no other family should experience the injustices that they faced due to not being informed about the unduly lenient sentence scheme. Tracey Hanson’s son Josh was tragically murdered in an unprovoked knife attack in 2015. Since that devastating loss, Tracey has shown extraordinary strength and compassion, continuing to advocate for and support other victims through her charity, the Josh Hanson Trust. In relation to the ULS scheme in particular, Tracey has campaigned for more than a decade, working closely with academics and fellow bereaved families to bring forward this change in the law. She held a strong and unwavering belief that it could not be right for her request to the Attorney General to be dismissed so abruptly, with nothing more than a “case closed” response.

The Minister might remember that, in a debate on these amendments on 25 March, she and I had an exchange in which I described the very long explanation that she had given as a “load of waffle”, and she replied:

“We have listened directly to the families about what they want. We could have brought forward an amendment that simply extended the time limit, but the families told us directly that that was not what they wanted.”—[Official Report, 25 March 2026; Vol. 783, c. 332.]

The amendment to extend the period to 180 days is very welcome, but when the Minister said on 25 March that that was not what the families wanted, was she inadvertently misleading the House?

I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s comments. I was not inadvertently misleading the House; if he looks at the details of Lords amendment 5C, he will see that that is not what it does. The amendment does not simply extend the time limit—it does much more—and it does not extend the time limit for everyone. As I will explain in my comments, this amendment is for the families and for the victims directly. It is not for everyone, as was proposed by the Opposition. This amendment does not just do what the Opposition’s amendment would have done, as Tracey Hanson said in her own words; it does much more with respect to its application, and it is for the bereaved families and victims directly. There is also a statutory duty in this group of amendments to directly inform victims and their families about the ULS scheme, so that they are aware of it in the first place.

There will be some back and forth about who wants what elements of this scheme and in what ways, but I think the Minister was wrong to say that our focus was on it being for everybody. I have been clear from the start that our focus was also on extending the provision for victims and their families, and not for everybody.

I appreciate that clarification. The hon. Gentleman is correct, but Lords amendment 5C does much more than that, through listening to victims campaigners such as Tracey Hanson and Katie Brett directly. The measure is a direct tribute to them, because for them the status quo was neither fair nor acceptable.

I would also like to extend my sincere thanks and gratitude to Katie Brett. Katie, your commitment and courage in campaigning in memory of your sister Sasha has been truly remarkable. I do not need to remind the House that Sasha was brutally murdered at the age of just 16, and since that devastating loss, Katie has worked tirelessly to ensure that the families of victims have the right to be informed about the ULS scheme and that, where they are not told, they are given a fair opportunity to make a request to the Attorney General beyond the 28 day limit. I have felt privileged to get to know you all over the course of this Bill.

Before I turn to the motions that we will debate today, I would also like to thank those who have contributed to recent debates on amendments related to homicides abroad and court transcripts. I thank Members across this House and in the other place for the thoughtful way in which they have engaged with those issues. I pay particular tribute to the hon. Member for Maidenhead (Mr Reynolds), who has campaigned to ensure that support is available for families bereaved by homicide abroad as they navigate such tragic events. In the other place, the Government committed to working jointly with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and the Home Office, to undertake a review of how support is provided to those families and to assess how current arrangements are operating.

I apologise to the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon), because I have just beat him to an intervention. Can I put on the record my thanks to the Minister for her work on this Bill? Whether we agree on different parts of the Bill, nobody in this Chamber or the other place could fail to recognise her personal commitment to ensuring that victims are at its heart. Could I ask her to mention the victims code and what she has done to make it easier to navigate for victims of crime?

I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention. This Bill goes beyond party politics; this is a Bill, as I have said, for victims. It has been a sincere pleasure to work across political divides to get this right for victims, who are rightly at the heart of the Bill. I have always stated that I will work with anyone from any party if they have any measure that could make the criminal justice system a better place for victims, so that we start to put victims at its heart. The Bill does exactly that: it takes a step towards putting victims back at the heart of the criminal justice system, where they fundamentally belong.

No one doubts the Minister’s commitment, honesty and integrity. But can I gently remind her that my right hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim (Sammy Wilson) outlined the issue of the glorification of terrorism in relation to this Bill? He raised the issue of children wearing IRA slogans. Just last Saturday, I met a lady whose husband was murdered by the IRA on 9 April 1990. She reminded me that, in Northern Ireland, when she went to visit the memorial for her dead husband who was murdered 36 years ago, she faced slogans against her, like “Up the ’RA”, when she was trying to think of her husband. We need things in this legislation to protect against that. We cannot let people take advantage of others’ sorrow and not recognise that they are grieving, by bringing up the past and trying to glorify terrorism, which murders people and destroys lives.

I welcome the hon. Gentleman’s intervention. He will know that my family have also faced tragedy and bereavement at the hands of the IRA. My cousin was killed on Horse Guards Parade serving this country by a serving member of the IRA, and that issue has plagued my family for decades and still hurts to this very day. I have spoken about that tragedy and bereavement in the Chamber before. He will know that the victims code is still open for consultation until the end of this month, and I urge anyone who has such feelings of pain to feed into that to enable us to make the code better for victims. The Policing Minister will have heard his views and the views of other victims on how we can support victims of terrorism. I have met families bereaved by terrorism to work with them on what more we can do, and they will be feeding into the victims code.

That brings me on to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Harlow (Chris Vince) about the victims code. I have spoken before about ensuring that those bereaved by homicide abroad have rights under the code; although it is not necessarily the right place, we have listened to them and ensured that there is a specific measure for them in the draft consultation. We are working with the FCDO and the Home Office to ensure that that can be strengthened so that support is available for them. The review will be published in 2027. It will be robust and comprehensive, and will put families at the centre, so that we can improve the support available to them where it is needed.

On court transcripts, I thank Liberal Democrat and Labour Members, including my hon. Friends the Members for Warrington North (Charlotte Nichols) and for Rotherham (Sarah Champion), for all the work they have done on ensuring that victims have access to court transcripts that relate to their cases. As the Minister set out in the other place last week, the Government are acutely aware of the need to consider what further action we can take to support victims to access information on court proceedings relating to their case, particularly in cases that do not result in a conviction. The Government are also fully committed to strengthening transparency. That is why I am pleased to restate that the Government are commencing a study on AI transcription in the criminal courts. That will look at how AI transcription could lead to producing court transcripts more quickly and at a lower cost for victims. The findings of that study have the potential to reduce fees and improve access to court transcripts. This will mean that further reform will be underpinned by confidence in accuracy, as well as appropriate safeguards, and that it will deliver for victims.

First, we are introducing an “out of time” route, which will allow victims and bereaved family members to ask the Attorney General to consider referring a sentence for review where they were unable to act within the existing 28 day time limit and where doing so is in the interests of justice. This route will be available for up to six months from the date of sentencing. The change reflects what victims have told us. It is not simply a six month extension of the deadline, but a new and necessary route for victims and bereaved families in cases where they were unable, through no fault of their own, to meet the original 28 day requirement.

Secondly, we will also introduce a statutory duty to notify victims of the existence of the unduly lenient sentence scheme. The victims code will ensure that those most impacted by the crime know their right to ask the Attorney General to consider referring a sentence review. Together, these two amendments deliver what victims have been calling for: a robust statutory duty to notify them and a fair “out of time” route to appeal.

To Tracey and Katie, we again thank you for your engagement throughout this process. Tracey, many of the changes we see today have been achieved in no small part because of your tireless campaigning in memory of Josh. I also thank the Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Brinton and the hon. Member for Mid Bedfordshire (Blake Stephenson) for their sustained support and championing of Tracey’s work.

Katie, I hope you will not mind me saying that I believe both your sister and your mother would be immensely proud of the determination and compassion that you have shown. You have had a big influence in ensuring that these measures exist, and I know that you will ensure that we deliver on them. I extend my thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool North and Fleetwood (Lorraine Beavers), who I know has been a steadfast and valued support in your campaign.