News

In a letter to Mary Williams, Sudden CEO, Dame Vera Baird lends her support to Sudden's Bereavement Charter, as new analysis shows unexpected deaths triple.

The Victims' Commissioner congratulates the Government on listening to domestic abuse campaigners in adding new laws to Domestic Abuse Bill, and urges further steps.

Dame Vera Baird says it is “imperative” intimate image abuse is made a criminal offence and welcomes Law Commission proposals.

Victims’ Commissioner publishes new paper setting out her ambitions for long-awaited Victims’ Law and calls for criminal justice agencies to be more accountable and for victims to be accorded “participants’ rights".

Dame Vera Baird welcomes the plans, which outlines proposals to undertake an inspection of the service received by victims and witnesses throughout the court process.

The Home Office Minister has responded to the Victims’ Commissioner’s letter regarding police recording of hate crimes.

"A Victims’ Law has been long awaited and is now long overdue," says Dame Vera. "If we are to regain the trust of victims, we urgently need a change of culture in how the justice system treats them."

Although there has been little coverage in the press, we know there has been a surge in anti-social behaviour over the past 9 months.

"Things must change and they must change soon." Dame Vera Baird calls latest rape statistics “shameful” and says “we cannot go on like this".

In a joint statement, the Commissioners write that without the amendment the Domestic Abuse Bill "risks creating a two-tier system" leaving victims without appropriate support.