Tag: COVID

New Victims' Commissioner report maps out victims of fraud and suggests who criminal justice agencies and support services should prioritise. The findings come as the government is set to enhance Action Fraud with new systems and is set to publish its new fraud strategy.

Responding to the report's findings, the Victims' Commissioner said: "we must not set a precedent whereby defendants are able to use the stresses of lockdown as a justification or defence for killing," as she warned agencies to be "hyper-alert to any form of 'Covid blaming.'"

Marking 35 years since the disappearance of Suzy Lamplugh, the Victims' Commissioner looks at the statistics around stalking during the pandemic.

Dame Vera Baird called for assurances from HMCTS that pressures on the court system, including the growing case backlog, would not "outweigh the potential adverse impacts on victims and witnesses".

The winter funding is "much needed" but both Commissioners call on the government to provide longer-term funding to enable services to continue their "critical work" past March 2021.

The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird QC, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, have called on the government to provide essential funding to support victims’ services through to the end of the financial year.

Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, today spoke out on behalf of anti-social behaviour victims following mounting evidence of a surge in anti-social behaviour complaints.