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Crime: Victims

Volume 457: debated on Monday 5 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of victims of crime were (a) eligible for and (b) provided with the enhanced service as set out in the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime in the last year for which figures are available. (121855)

Section 4 of the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime specifies that eligibility for enhanced services is based on whether the victim is vulnerable or intimidated (as defined by sections 16 and 17 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999). The Home Office does not collect information centrally about how many or what percentage of all victims of crime are vulnerable or intimidated, or on how many or what percentage were provided with enhanced services under the code.

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of available evidence on (a) victims' willingness to participate in restorative justice processes and (b) the benefits victims feel they receive from the processes; and if he will make a statement. (121940)

The Government have invested £5 million in the crime reduction programme restorative justice pilots and their evaluation. These pilots delivered restorative justice at all stages of the criminal justice system and to both juveniles and adults. The second (of four) research reports was published in February 2006, ‘Restorative justice in practice—findings from the second phase of the evaluation of three schemes’, Home Office Research Findings No 274. This report found that victims were prepared to participate in the restorative justice process and that victim participation was very high where cases involved young offenders. The third research report on victim and offender satisfaction is expected to be published later this year.