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Rights for Crime Victims to become Law.

The Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has announced that, for the first time, victims of crime will be given legal rights; the new Laws will see that victims will be given updates about their case and have an opportunity, in most cases, to provide a statement on how the crime has impacted them.

The far reaching proposals will also see the setting up of an information service for victims of crime and will improve the way minors give evidence for a trial.

The Labour party will publish its own proposals shortly.

The present guidelines follow a victim's code that is followed by courts, the police and probation service. The new Laws will ensure that the measures are backed up by legislation that will be the subject of a bill in the next parliament.

Part of the consultation is the feasibility to compensate victims of crime earlier, at the moment this can take years.

The thorough overhaul of how victims are dealt with is overdue, with the proposed modernisation of courts to include a separate area for victims and defendants, just one of many steps to help with the trauma that many victims suffer, and improve the availability of support through one central support body.

Steps are being undertaken to change the way child witnesses are handled, with some horror stories about children being cross examined for days on end by multiple defence barristers becoming a thing of the past. The pilot scheme will allow children to give evidence in advance of the trial away from the court with the process being filmed to be used later during the trial.

The new bill, whilst largely welcomed, has been criticised as perhaps not going far enough, and could be seen by some as for political gain in announcing it before Labour's details for a victims law.

What happens will be down to the next government and we will detail Labour's proposals when available.

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