Baroness Newlove changed how we talk about victims. Now we must deliver for them

A version of this blog first appeared in the Telegraph on 30 June 2026.

On International Women’s Day this year, I was delighted to see Baroness Helen Newlove recognised as one of the most influential figures in Westminster, praised for “fundamentally reshaping how victims are heard and supported within the justice system”.

“Helen’s legacy will endure in the systems she changed, the voices she amplified and her steadfast insistence that justice must never forget those harmed by crime.”

It is hard to argue with that assessment. Having worked alongside Helen for many years, I saw first-hand that Helen was a tireless and dedicated champion for victims – defining what it truly means to be Victims’ Commissioner.

Helen’s authority came not from office, but from experience. In 2007, her husband Garry was murdered outside their home after a period of escalating anti-social behaviour. What followed was extraordinary resilience. She turned personal tragedy into public purpose – becoming a national advocate for victims and, ultimately, Victims’ Commissioner.

Helen didn’t just speak for victims – she changed the system around them.

But her greatest legacy is not institutional. It is the people she stood up for – particularly those experiencing anti-social behaviour, too often dismissed and ignored by the agencies meant to protect them.

Because Helen understood something others did not: for victims, anti-social behaviour is not minor. It is relentless. And, in too many cases, it is devastating.

In her 2019 report, victims described feeling like “second-class citizens”, trapped in a system that passed them from pillar to post. The title captured it perfectly: Living a Nightmare.

When that work was revisited five years later in 2024, little had changed. Many victims were still reporting ongoing abuse. For some, it had been happening for years.

They were still living that same nightmare.

While progress has been made on paper, it has not always translated into meaningful change on the ground.

Two years on from the passage of the landmark Victims and Prisoners Act – legislation Helen fought so hard to secure – many of its reforms still exist largely on the statute book. The systems needed to monitor whether victims actually receive their rights under the Victims’ Code are not yet in place, making meaningful accountability impossible.

As a result, victims’ rights risk gathering dust: promised in law, but too often absent in practice.

The consequences are clear. In the 2024 Victim Survey less than half of victims believe they can get justice, while just 46% were confident in its effectiveness and only 51% in its fairness.

Progress has been made. But progress is not the same as delivery.

Helen often spoke of the need to move past “warm words”. She knew that legislation and policy mean little if they are not delivered in practice and delivered well.

As Victims’ Commissioner, I see that gap first-hand. I have a statutory duty to monitor how agencies such as the police, CPS and courts deliver victims’ rights in practice.

At present, that duty cannot be meaningfully fulfilled. There is no clear framework for measuring whether those rights are being delivered – leaving a gap between what victims are promised and what they receive.

That is why I have written to the Deputy Prime Minister today to press for urgent action to implement the reforms Helen championed and Parliament voted into law.

Without these systems in place, there is a real risk that victims will continue to be failed – and that I, in my role as Victims’ Commissioner, will remain unable to hold these agencies properly to account to deliver the service or response victims deserve.

Helen leaves behind a system in which victims have stronger rights on paper, and a clearer focus on getting it right for them.

The task now is to turn that progress into impact.

Because victims do not need more promises. They need action – and meaningful change on the ground.