(13 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Kenneth Clarke)
I beg to move,
That this House takes note of European Union Documents No. 10610/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to the Draft Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, No. 10613/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to the Draft Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters, No. 10612/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to a Commission Communication–strengthening victims’ rights in the EU and the unnumbered Explanatory Memorandum dated 16 May 2011 relating to a Council Resolution on a Roadmap for strengthening the rights and protection of victims, in particular in criminal proceedings; and welcomes the opportunity to consider views on whether the UK should opt in to the draft Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims and the Draft Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters.
I thank the European Scrutiny Committee for calling the debate. The Government are currently actively considering in detail the European Commission’s proposals on victims, and in particular whether the United Kingdom should opt into the proposed directive on victims and regulation on protection orders. There has already been some scrutiny of the protection order regulation, but it is useful to have this opportunity to hear Members’ views on the proposals on the Floor of the House, to inform our decisions.
The Government are obviously committed to supporting the victims of crime. One of the main objects of the criminal justice system, as well as punishing those guilty of serious criminal offences, is offering protection and support to the victims of crime. We welcome the priority that the European Commission is giving the matter and the further impetus provided by the Hungarian Government, who will hold the presidency of the European Union for the second half of this year. There was a Budapest declaration setting out their intention, supported by the Council of the European Union, to deal with various matters concerning the victims of crime in the course of their presidency.
I am glad to say that this country is seen by the Commission as an example of best practice on supporting victims. The Government hope to strengthen what we do, but there is no doubt that we are well ahead of the vast majority of members of the European Union in what we do now.
The thing that the House should particularly have regard to is that our own citizens are increasingly travelling and working across the EU. If a British citizen is unfortunate enough to fall victim to crime in another member state, I do not think that they always get the level of support that they would expect in similar circumstances in the United Kingdom. The Government see one of the main attractions of this package of work as, among other things, helping our citizens to get the full support that they ought to have in a modern and civilised state when they are victims of crime. We want to ensure that British citizens are provided with the information, support and protection that they rightly expect to receive when they fall victim to crime in any EU member state.
My officials have been working with the Commission to share our experiences of supporting victims, and to consider how the existing EU framework agreement on the subject might be improved. The Commission, I am glad to say, has taken on board many of our suggestions in its recent proposals. I am especially pleased that the proposed directive takes into account the particular role of victims in our common law system. We encounter drafting problems at least in quite a lot of proposals in this field, because, like the Irish, Cypriots and Maltese, we tend to have a common law system, whereas the rest of Europe does not. It is necessary to ensure that the procedural differences and the practices of different countries are respected in such proposals.
The Government are committed to targeting resources towards those victims who need them the most. We continue to develop our own proposals on victims—we hope to come forward with some in the autumn—but meanwhile, we will continue to work with our European partners to ensure that any EU action on victims supports our approach. We are particularly trying to ensure that any requirements imposed upon or accepted by member states are proportionate to the needs of victims and properly targeted on those with the most important needs.
I wait to hear whether there are any objections in principle to the objectives being pursued by the Commission and the Hungarian presidency, and the vast majority of the member states on the European Council—as far as I am aware, that means all member states on the Council—but I think they are unlikely. It is plainly desirable that we consider spreading best practice across the Union when it comes to protecting victims of any nationality who have the misfortune to fall prey to crime in any of our countries. However, I look forward to hearing the views of right hon. and hon. Members on any particular aspects of the package of proposals before us to which they want to draw the House’s and the Government’s attention.
Stephen Twigg (Liverpool, West Derby) (Lab/Co-op)
I welcome the opportunity for the House to debate this important draft European Union directive. I am sure that Members on both sides of the House will have constituents who have been affected by crimes elsewhere in the EU, and I want to take this opportunity to share with the House the case of my constituents, Lesley and Steve Dunne, which highlights the very serious shortcomings in current practice and legislation.
I echo the Secretary of State’s opening remarks. As he said, we want proper support that reflects our modern and civilised state. He also said that we should require a directive to be both proportionate and properly targeted, and I very much agree with him on that. Mr and Mrs Dunne were badly let down by the legal system in Spain. They had lived there and their son Gary was murdered there in 2006. It took the family three years to have their son’s body repatriated to the United Kingdom. Throughout their campaign to have his body returned, Mr and Mrs Dunne, whom I now count as good friends, showed great courage, fortitude and incredible dignity in the face of the many barriers and hurdles to securing what most families would take for granted—being able to bury their son.
The draft directive before the House will go some way to addressing some of the problems that they faced and that other families have faced as well. It seeks to ensure that member states recognise that, where a person’s death has been caused by a criminal offence, the family members are to be defined as victims. Mr and Mrs Dunne were not treated with the respect that the House would expect for the parents of a murdered son. The Secretary of State was right that in many regards this country is at the forefront of best practice in the treatment of victims. We have a long way to go, but compared with the experience in Spain that I am outlining, we are well advanced. The draft directive sets a minimum standard for access to information and support. If this is adopted successfully across the EU, I sincerely hope that other families affected by the death of a loved one in Europe will not have to endure what Mr and Mrs Dunne have.
Steve and Lee Dunne learned of their son’s murder not from the Spanish or British authorities, but from a friend in Spain who had heard of the murderer’s arrest not from the Spanish authorities, but from another friend who had read about it in the local press. When Steve and Lee received a call from the authorities informing them that the perpetrator had been arrested, they flew immediately to Spain in the belief that it meant that Gary’s body could be repatriated for a funeral in their home city of Liverpool. This was not the case, however. They flew to Spain, where they discovered that they had been called there simply for the courts to ask them whether they wanted the suspect prosecuted. The suspect had fled Spain to evade capture.
Mr and Mrs Dunne were appalled. They had not been properly advised of the reason they had been called to Spain. As far as they were concerned, of course they wanted their son’s alleged murderer to face justice in a Spanish court. I hope that the provisions on information and support in the draft directive will ensure that in the future clear information will be given to families in similar situations. This lack of access to information was compounded by the absence of officially provided translators or interpreters during the prosecution. I am pleased therefore that this specific issue is covered in the draft directive. Lee and Steve ended up having to hire translators and interpreters at their own expense, which has contributed to them incurring costs of about £40,000 to run their ultimately successful campaign to secure Gary’s repatriation. I will return to that point in a moment.
This lack of financial support was exacerbated by the lack of victim support. Legal aid was neither offered nor available. No counselling or bereavement support was available to help the family through what inevitably was a difficult and traumatic time.
That the draft directive seeks to treat the families of murder victims as victims themselves is a welcome recognition of the very real personal dangers that families can be exposed to when they pursue prosecution in other countries. Mr and Mrs Dunne certainly felt that their safety was at risk on a number of occasions during the judicial process in Spain. For example, unpleasant threats were made by acquaintances of the accused during the proceedings, and they felt that there was a lack of support and information about what was going on throughout the trial.
Steve and Lee have not received financial support from the Spanish authorities towards meeting the costs that they incurred in their attempts to repatriate their late son’s body. Members of the public in this country, particularly in Liverpool, have given generously in donations, which have offered some assistance to the family, but as I said earlier, they incurred significant costs of more than £40,000 simply trying to secure the burial of their son. They eventually learned that they had been granted compensation by the Spanish court of £125,000, to be paid by the perpetrator, but they did not find out about it until two years after the ruling had been made to award the compensation. So far, they have received less than £1,500 of the £125,000 that they were granted, and the payments have now stopped.
This highlights two problems that are addressed by the draft directive. The first is the very limited progress that has been made in getting the compensation to the family; I shall return to that matter later. The second is the fact that the information channels were so poor that they did not find out about the granting of the compensation until two years after the decision, in a period in which the family was struggling financially owing to having had to raise the money to fight their case to have their son’s body returned.
Mr and Mrs Dunne came to London to visit Parliament earlier today, in advance of tonight’s debate. They asked me to describe their ordeal in this way to demonstrate the appalling shortcomings in the system. They are tireless campaigners whose drive, courage and determination to prevent any other family from going through what they went through are an inspiration to us all. As well as campaigning on the issues that we are discussing this evening, they have visited schools across Merseyside to educate young people about the dangers of knife crime.
Gary Dunne’s body was ultimately returned for a family funeral in Liverpool in 2009. On behalf of the family, I place on record their appreciation of the hard work of the Member of the European Parliament for North West England, Arlene McCarthy, and of my right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), both of whom raised Gary’s case consistently throughout the family’s ordeal. They raised the case with the then Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Mr Brown), who responded to the campaign by raising Mr and Mrs Dunne’s situation directly with the Spanish Prime Minister, Señor Zapatero, who intervened personally. That intervention resulted in the repatriation of Gary’s body. That was clearly a welcome development for the Dunne family, but it cannot be right that they had to go through three years of heartache before they could bury their son, or that they secured his repatriation only after a vigorous campaign that culminated in the British Prime Minister raising the case with his Spanish counterpart.
Last October, I raised the case with the present Prime Minister, and I was delighted that he agreed to meet Mr and Mrs Dunne. That meeting took place in January this year, when they had the opportunity to raise with him the changes that they wished to see that would ensure that no other family would have to go through what they had been through. They told the Prime Minister about their long-fought struggle and about both the shortcomings that I have described in the Spanish system and the shortcomings in the British consular services, in terms of the support offered to them and other families affected by the loss of a loved one overseas, and in particular in the European Union, which is what we are addressing this evening. It was a positive meeting, and the Prime Minister agreed to address those shortcomings, suggesting that there may be opportunities for a pilot scheme for improved consular services. Mr and Mrs Dunne agreed that their case could be used as a test case—an example case—to set up training programmes to ensure that British consular services give sufficient support to British families on the ground, particularly given that those families are themselves victims, as the directive describes them.
As the Secretary of State said, the proposed directive seeks to address the shortcomings in the current 2001 Council framework decision on the standing of victims in criminal proceedings. I know that Members from across the House will be moved by the case of my constituents, Mr and Mrs Dunne, whose treatment throughout the past five years has been truly appalling. An opt-in to the directive would go some way towards ensuring that others do not go through similar experiences in future. Not all the issues that have affected Mr and Mrs Dunne are covered by the draft directive. Some of them relate to United Kingdom policy in practice—I have referred to consular support. Frankly, some of them are challenges for Spain—for Spanish law and Spanish practice on the repatriation of bodies, compensation and access to justice. I will be seeking a meeting with the Spanish ambassador in London to press for Mr and Mrs Dunne’s compensation to be paid in full and immediately.
I welcome the opportunity to share the appalling experience of my constituents Mr and Mrs Dunne with the House this evening and to pay tribute to them for their campaign, their fortitude and how they have turned their grief into something positive, so that other families do not have to go through what they went through. I thank the Government for giving me this opportunity to address this important subject.
Mike Weatherley (Hove) (Con)
I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) for giving a very moving speech.
I address the Chamber as chairman of the all-party group on retail and business crime, and, by virtue of that, as someone concerned about victims of crime, both at home and abroad. Although there are some parts of our criminal justice system that can clearly be improved on, I understand from the organisation Victim Support—we heard this point earlier, too—that we generally enjoy a better standard of treatment for victims of crime than is the case across Europe. It does not take a huge stretch of the imagination to realise that victims of crime are at their most vulnerable when they are abroad. Perhaps they do not speak the language, and they would probably have little idea of where to go, what to do, or even what processes are in place to assist them in the event of crime. Moreover, many unscrupulous criminals specifically target foreign nationals—tourists in particular—for those very reasons.
In this instance, I feel that EU support would benefit the British abroad, so I call on the Government to support the draft directive in question, which deals with a minimum standard of treatment for victims of crime across Europe. Indeed, it has been carefully argued by the charity Victim Support that the directive would benefit the British at home also. I would not usually back EU interference—the EU meddles in so much that it should not meddle in, plus it is a ridiculous, wasteful organisation and unnecessarily bureaucratic—but in this instance it has actually come up with something that should be addressed for the common European good. With regard to offenders’ release dates, the directive would certainly increase the rights of victims in the UK. At present, a victim has the right to know only when an offender has been released from custody in the case of sexual or violent crime where an offender has been sentenced to more than 12 months in custody. The directive would extend that right to all victims.
Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)
I am listening with great interest to my hon. Friend. I very much applaud and welcome his and the Government’s intent, but does he realise that we could achieve the same end without opting in to this EU directive? We could negotiate a separate arrangement with opt-outs, which would not be available under an EU directive.
Mike Weatherley
I thank my hon. Friend for his intervention, but I am afraid that he is sadly mistaken, for various reasons that I shall come to. I agree that the EU quite often meddles unnecessarily, but occasionally some standardisation across Europe is welcome, and this is one of those situations.
I mentioned that our system of victim support is better than those of other countries around Europe, but this position is by no means assured. After all, it has been eroded in several key areas. One is the example of funding for Victim Support—a charity that provides an invaluable service to victims of crime. Its funding has been cut, which is a great shame. Also, over a number of years, we have seen certain crimes such as shoplifting downgraded. Indeed, the Sentencing Commission does not formally recognise the vulnerability of shop workers as particular victims of crime, despite last year being a record period for crimes committed in shops, ranging from shoplifting to murders in the process of robbery. The Government could also do more to support the private sector in schemes such as Facewatch, piloted in London by the Metropolitan police and now spreading across the UK.
Victims of crime currently have the right to receive a basic level of service for each criminal justice agency under the code of practice for victims of crime. Everything that victims are entitled to under the code is pretty basic and the sort of thing that one would assume victims would receive automatically. The Government, however, have already removed the duty on local criminal justice boards to report their compliance with the victims code, which means no one is monitoring compliance with the code or holding agencies to account when they fail to comply with it. There is a danger that the Government will seek to downgrade the code or abolish it altogether. That would mean that a victim of crime would have no statutory right to a decent level of service from the criminal justice system. Abolishing or downgrading the code would be a serious retrograde step that would turn the clock back on victims’ rights.
Mr Kenneth Clarke
I would like to give my hon. Friend an assurance on that in case I forget to reply to his point later. We realise that the code needs modernising, but we do not have the faintest intention of repealing or abolishing it. I can give my hon. Friend that assurance straight away—before some rumour is accidentally set flying.
Mike Weatherley
I am most grateful to the Secretary of State for that intervention. The point I was trying to make was about the code’s inability to be made legally enforceable when no particular agency is held to account for compliance at the moment. I would like to see it strengthened.
On behalf of all future victims of crime, I urge the Government to support the EU directive on a minimum standard of treatment for victims of crime across Europe.
Mr William Cash (Stone) (Con)
The Secretary of State and Lord Chancellor made his point clear at the beginning. He might have been slightly concerned that there would be some kind of Division, but as far as I am concerned, there will be nothing of the kind. To me, this debate is about recognising the fact that this is an important issue. Furthermore, I view it as the job of the European Scrutiny Committee to recommend for debate matters of legal or political importance. Nobody is in any doubt that this is a matter of very considerable importance.
The communication from the European Commission, “Strengthening victims’ rights in the EU”, starts with the question: “Why do victims matter?” Let me give a brief indication of what the European Commission states in this particular context. The communication talks about the many millions of people who fall victim to crime. It notes that about
“30 million crimes against persons or property are recorded annually”
in the EU. It continues:
“Crime often affects more than one victim…This leads to a qualified estimate that there is likely to be up to 75 million direct victims of crime every year.”
So in quantitative terms, we are talking about something in the order of 75 million people affected.
Road accidents are also discussed, with a million across the EU mentioned, along with the loss of 30,700 lives in 2010. People are constantly travelling and moving across borders and it notes that about 11.3 million Europeans are residing
“permanently outside their own home country”.
It mentions that
“10% of Europeans have lived and worked abroad during a period of their lives and 13% have gone abroad for education or training.”
The European Commission states:
“These numbers show the importance of ensuring proper, effective action on the rights of those who fall victim to crime or to road accidents, in their own country or while travelling or living abroad.”
It claims that that is
“both a cross-border and a domestic problem that calls for EU action.”
It also mentions the impact on women in the European Union.
The Commission describes compensation as one of the basic needs of victims. In a section headed “A specific focus on victims of crime—what do they need?”, it states:
“Many people fall victim to crime in the EU every year”,
and refers to
“the need to be recognised and treated with respect and dignity”—
we say amen to that—
“to be protected and supported; to have access to justice; and to get compensation and restoration.”
On the subject of that compensation and restoration, it states:
“Persons who have suffered harm because of the acts of others often expect to get some form of financial compensation, whether from the State or the offender. Compensation aims at repairing immediate and longer-term financial damage. It may also act as a form of acknowledgement through a symbolic payment.”
It continues:
“Restorative justice, which is a relatively new concept in criminal proceedings, goes beyond purely financial compensation to focus on the recovery of the victim.”
As Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee, I want to explain a little of the background to the four documents that are before us. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) and to my hon. Friend the Member for Hove (Mike Weatherley) for their contributions, to which I listened carefully. I was very moved by what the hon. Gentleman said about the difficulties experienced by the Dunne family.
The documents comprise part of a package that is a recent initiative to bolster the rights afforded and support given to victims in criminal and civil legal proceedings throughout the European Union. Let me add to what the Minister has said by giving the House the European Scrutiny Committee’s summary of each of the documents.
The road map is a statement by member states of how far they intend to implement the Commission’s victims’ package, which is quite far. The draft directive, which is binding on member states when implemented, lays down comprehensive and far-reaching rules governing the rights of victims of crime. As I have said, the Commission’s communication indicates that further legislation on victims’ compensation, and on the law to be applied in cross-border traffic accidents, is in the pipeline. The draft regulation, which is automatically binding on member states once adopted in Brussels, provides for the automatic recognition in all member states of a civil protection order, such as a non-molestation order, granted by a civil court in one member state. A parallel proposal for protection orders granted by criminal courts is also being negotiated, but is not subject to this debate. As I think the Lord Chancellor will confirm, the Government have opted in to that provision.
As we have heard, the draft directive and regulation are subject to the opt-in protocol referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Wycombe (Steve Baker), under which the UK is presumed not to want to be legally bound by them unless it notifies the Commission of the contrary within three months of the publication of the proposals. In the opinion of my Committee, the Government should take into account several factors when making their decision.
First, the Government should consider whether the UK can influence negotiations more successfully once it has opted in, and should weigh that possibility against the chance that it could end up being bound by damaging legislation. Secondly—I think this equally important—they should consider the financial impact of the proposal. However much we may agree that there is a case for compensation in general terms, I am sure that the sheer range, extent and potential cost concern the Government particularly, given our current position. Lastly, I repeat that once these obligations are imposed on us, they will necessarily give rise to grave financial implications, and that will be the case across the range of the victims I have identified—as many as 75 million, a figure I put on the record earlier.
There is also the question of whether the proposal will require legislative change in the United Kingdom. The Government’s explanatory memorandum demonstrates that they are broadly in favour of the two legislative proposals but that they need to look at their resource and administrative implications. By contrast, the Government question the need for further legislation on compensating victims. The Secretary of State will, I hope, give us some indication in respect of that before the end of the debate. That is the Government’s position, but I have already indicated the scale, range and extent of what needs to be done.
The European Scrutiny Committee recommended holding this debate for the following reasons: the victims’ package marks a significant changing up of gear in the EU’s policy on victims; the resource and administrative implications for the UK will be substantial, especially with regard to the regulation, as can be seen from pages 27 to 31 of the relevant report; and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hove said, the rights of victims in the UK are currently a matter of concern and, at times, controversy.
Finally, if this needs saying at all, we ask the Government to consider long and hard the views expressed in this debate before deciding whether to opt in.
Tom Brake (Carshalton and Wallington) (LD)
It gives me great pleasure to be able to make a brief contribution about the road map draft directive and draft regulation. The road map includes a package of proposed legislative measures designed to ensure that all 27 member states, especially some of the poorer performing new and southern states, meet minimum standards in providing for the rights of victims of crime. Many states are seeking to put into law existing Council of Europe conventions in this area, which are by and large designed to ensure that any EU citizen who is a victim of crime anywhere in the EU is guaranteed to have their rights met.
I shall follow the example of the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) by referring briefly to a constituency case, as it serves to illustrate why these changes are needed. The case, which I have raised in the House on a number of occasions, relates to Robbie Hughes, who was seriously attacked when on holiday in Malia in Crete, allegedly by British tourists—it is still going through the courts, so I cannot say much more than that. He suffered severe head injuries as a result of the attack. Since then, his mother has been campaigning to ensure that the support available for victims of crime abroad is enhanced. She has done a lot of work, such as by helping the Foreign and Commonwealth Office improve its website and put extra information on it. She has also done a lot of work with travel agents to put pressure on the travel reps to stop encouraging British tourists to go out and get blind drunk by telling them where the cheapest venues are for getting the most potent alcohol, with the inevitable consequences in places such as Malia in Crete where, I am afraid, British tourists have a very poor reputation.
Robbie and his mother faced a whole host of issues and problems, with which I am sure the Dunnes, to whom the hon. Gentleman referred, will be very familiar. There is a problem in accessing health care, and people also need to be encouraged to take out insurance. They may think, “I’m safe because I’m going to an EU country,” but the descriptions of health care in Greece suggest that it leaves something to be desired. There are also language issues, and although legal aid is available in Greece, that is not immediately apparent to a British citizen who is sent a form written in Greek. There are translation issues therefore, and there are clearly significant communication issues. Some of them are simple, such as whether the person abroad is able to use their mobile phone and whether, if they clock up a large bill, they will be cut off before having been able to help their loved one abroad.
We also need to address issues relating to the police and the application of different standards. For example, in some countries the police are not willing to register crimes and fail simply to get out of the starting blocks in getting a crime addressed. There are also problems relating to money and to extradition, where a case subsequently does come to court. That is a good example of an area where the European Union has put in place measures to address the situation.
Many of the issues that these two families experienced would benefit greatly from this standardisation of a minimum level of support for victims of crime. During a debate on victim support on 8 June, I expressed reservations about what we are debating tonight, but I did so on the basis of not having a clear appreciation of the extent to which the UK Government had been involved in drawing up the proposal. I also had concerns that the UK’s strong position on supporting victims would be diluted by this approach, but we are clearly setting a minimum standard that other countries can and should go beyond. I also had concerns about whether this approach would place an undue burden on the UK, but it is clear, again, that the UK’s high standards on victim support mean that although the UK Government might have to take some additional steps, they are relatively small in the scheme of things. On that basis, I think that this is a very positive contribution and I hope that the Ministry of Justice will be minded to push it forward swiftly.
Ben Gummer (Ipswich) (Con)
I have a similar tale to tell to the one told by the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg). I do not wish to go into the precise details, but the case came to me within days of my becoming Member of Parliament for Ipswich and relates to a terrible situation involving a constituent who was murdered by another constituent in Spain. The family were faced with the most appalling series of choices and negotiations to be made with the Spanish authorities. Unfortunately, the family had to deal with Andalusian law as it applied in the Canary islands, which even in Spanish terms is seen as rather arcane.
The process of bringing the body back to the United Kingdom was frustrated by the offender, who had come back to this country. The reason it happened rather more quickly than in the case of the hon. Gentleman’s constituent was the European arrest warrant, which made a considerable difference to the speed with which the case could be dealt. That is one good example of the arrest warrant significantly improving things for victims in this country. In a similar manner to the hon. Gentleman's case, although not to the same extent, it took the pulling of strings in Spain by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, by me and by people who really should not have been involved to bring about more speedily the returning of my constituent’s body to the family in Ipswich. That is why the directive will bring about a real improvement for constituents who are faced with such terrible problems.
The problem will get bigger and bigger as more and more people seek to work in the European Union and go on holiday there. As such, as we have heard from the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), acts of violence and drunkenness and situations where constituents might be put before the law will increase. We all know from our casework—even I know from my short time as a Member of Parliament—how constituents in such situations can be distinctly disadvantaged. That can happen with very minor offences and with the most serious and grave.
It is therefore nice that we can come together in this House for the first time in a long time to agree on a new piece of European legislation that every Member believes will be bring an improvement for our constituents. It represents a sharing and pooling of sovereignty which will improve the lives of those whom we seek to represent. I agree with and approve of what the Government are trying to do in this instance. I hope that they will be able to bring the directive to fulfilment as quickly as possible and that its implementation will ensure that those European neighbours who are not so assiduous in their treatment of victims of crime are made to protect and enhance the rights of our constituents as rapidly as possible.
Robert Flello (Stoke-on-Trent South) (Lab)
Over recent weeks, the treatment of victims and their families has come to the fore in the UK. We have seen the family of Milly Dowler speak about the appalling treatment they received at the hands of defence lawyers acting for Levi Bellfield; we have read the report from the victims commissioner, Louise Casey, about the needs of families bereaved by homicide; and most recently we have been sickened by the revelations that the mobile phones of victims and others have been hacked into by elements of the media for whom the story comes before any sense of morality.
Under the previous Labour Government, great strides forward were made in championing the rights and needs of victims and their families, although we would be the first to admit that there was and is more that could be done. Under Labour, we saw the introduction of the national victims service—an £8 million support scheme for relatives of manslaughter and murder victims that offered victims a dedicated support worker—in response, of course, to the report published by Labour’s first ever victims champion, Sara Payne. As a result, the CPS now has a victim focus scheme committing it to a post-charge and post-conviction meeting for murder, manslaughter and road death cases in the Crown court. There is also a new protocol for Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service for bereaved families and a statutory victims code of practice that commits the police, the Crown Prosecution Service, the courts, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority, the probation service and others to providing information within certain time scales. The CPS has a prosecutors’ pledge, setting out how Crown prosecutors should conduct the case, and the probation service provides a victim liaison scheme for certain victims of crime or their next of kin as regards some elements of the offender’s movements within the prison estate and release information.
Labour introduced the victim personal statement scheme and the policing pledge, and in April 2010 we launched a £2 million homicide service, with the police allocating a family liaison officer to each family following a homicide or a culpable road death. In January 2010, Labour also introduced the compensation scheme for British victims of terrorism abroad as part of the Crime and Security Act 2010 and declared that it would be retrospective to 2002. I hope that the Lord Chancellor will take on board the fact that it is still to be implemented. All those measures came on top of a cut of 43% in crime, which reduced the likelihood of being a victim of crime.
Although the Government have made the right noises about victims being at the heart of their approach, it is fair to say that they have stumbled a few times: over how legal aid cuts have been targeted, over the changes to remand proposed in the latest justice legislation and over the dropped manifesto commitment on knife crime, for example. Let me be clear that although we will hold the Government to account when we feel they have taken a wrong turn, we will support them when they do the right thing by victims, as they have with the welcome announcement of an additional £500,000 for practical changes following Louise Casey’s report.
For now, we are debating a draft directive from the European Union that gives the Government the opportunity to pick themselves up and show that they can be on the side of the victim. We are considering four things this evening: the draft directive that establishes minimum standards for the rights, support and protection of victims of crime; a draft regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters; a Commission communication on strengthening victims’ rights in the EU; and the explanatory memorandum dated 16 May 2011 to a Council resolution on a road map for strengthening the rights and protection of victims, particularly in criminal proceedings.
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for setting out the Government’s position on those four documents. Let me add to the debate by setting out our view of these important documents and the improvements they could make for all member states. Although the UK leads the way, as the Lord Chancellor said, I think he would also readily accept that more is required of the UK in its treatment of victims of crime.
Let us consider the scale of the issues that challenge us. From Louise Casey’s report on the needs of families bereaved by homicide, we know that the vast majority of victims’ families—more than 80%—have suffered trauma-related symptoms, that three-quarters have suffered depression and that one in every five have become addicted to alcohol. Every person in the survey said that their health had been affected in some way. Some 59% found it difficult to manage their finances following the bereavement and one in four stopped working permanently. The average cost of the homicide to each family was £37,000, with costs ranging from those for probate to those for funerals, travel to and from court and even for cleaning up the crime scene. The majority of those people got no help with those costs and some were forced into debt. The victims commissioner’s review shows that such effects persist for many years.
The scale of the issue comes more into focus when we consider that, as the Chairman of the European Scrutiny Committee said, 30 million crimes against persons or property are recorded each year across the European Union, resulting in about 75 million direct victims of crime every year across the Union. The number of homicides will, thankfully, be only a small proportion of that number, but the impact of any crime on victims will have many of the characteristics I have mentioned, with the most horrendous crimes bringing the hardest burdens of all.
Kelvin Hopkins (Luton North) (Lab)
I thank my hon. Friend for giving way as I have not been here for the whole debate. One thing that concerns me and that exacerbates all the problems is the free movement of people within the European Union. If we had borders that were enforced, criminals would not be able to travel so freely through the European Union and individuals going on holiday would be more conscious of the fact that they were going to different jurisdictions with different standards and levels of health protection and be more wary and concerned. Above all, traffickers in human beings, particularly in children, would have a more difficult time if we had internal borders.
Robert Flello
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. He makes his points very well and I will return to some of those issues shortly.
British citizens should receive the highest standards in any member state when they are the victim of a crime. In the draft directive, the European Union has sought to build on the 2001 Council framework decision, which established general minimum standards. The rationale behind it is that the 2001 framework was not implemented across member states in a satisfactory way, with some member states doing more than others—I think the UK can hold its head high in that regard—leaving a patchwork of uneven standards of protection and support for victims. One of the Commission’s conclusions that speaks volumes in the light of the Dowler family’s experience is that
“Member States generally do not ensure that victims are treated in a manner equivalent to that of a party to proceedings.”
The Commission found that there was “ambiguous drafting”, a “lack of concrete obligations” and a “lack of infringement possibilities”.
In the Lord Chancellor’s comments on each of the articles in the draft directive, there are some positives which are very welcome, but there are some less welcome and possibly worrying observations too. The Government straight away use the phrase
“proportionate to the needs of victims”,
but we have seen from the victims commissioner’s recent report that the needs of victims are not being met, so who will judge what is proportionate to the needs of victims? Will it be the Lord Chancellor, his Department or the victims commissioner? Who will decide?
It is vital that the directive should help to provide greater uniformity across the EU to improve the service that UK citizens can expect. More must be done to ensure that victims’ families do not have to suffer unnecessary delays and further trauma following the loss of a family member abroad. At this point I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) for raising the terrible and tragic issue of Gary Dunne and the work being done by Lesley and Steve Dunne to whom our sympathies must go out. It is also important to raise the cases that were mentioned by the hon. Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) and by the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake), whom I congratulate on his imminent esteemed elevation to the Privy Council. I suspect that we all have examples of such tragedies in our constituencies. For example, a constituent of mine died in Tenerife last year. Again, because of the Spanish coronial system, the victim’s family had to wait months before the body was repatriated to the UK.
I turn to some of the articles. Article 2 is welcome. It sets out the wider impact of a crime beyond the person who has been killed or suffered some immediate injustice. It should not be the subject of detailed clarification. Some clarification is required, but the Government’s comments about the need for clarification are a little troubling.
The first part of article 4 deals with the provision of information to victims. Although the Lord Chancellor says he is confident that this article is generally compatible with current practice across the UK, I wonder just how confident he is about the uniformity and quality of current practice across the UK in the light of the victims commissioner’s report. The second part of article 4 covers the sensitive issue of informing victims of the release of an offender. I agree that we should be mindful of the risks to the offender. We do not want to see lynch mobs at the prison gates, but we also do not want to see victims unexpectedly coming face to face with the offender in a supermarket because no one has forewarned them, as has happened time and again.
I am not sure that in their response to article 9 the Government fully understand how variable is the use of the victim personal statement. I suggest that the Lord Chancellor takes a moment or two to read the strategic audit of the criminal justice system, a report prepared by Victim Support. It makes sombre reading about the use of the victim personal statement. It notes that the police are responsible for offering victims the opportunity to make a statement, but that they are not required to do so by law, and VPSs are not even mentioned in the Government’s primary document setting out the services that the victim can expect.
The report from Victim Support continues:
“The actual situation on the ground is poor—of those whose cases reach court, less than half recall being offered the opportunity to make a VPS. Moreover, of those who did make a VPS, only two-thirds felt it was taken into account. Furthermore, the likelihood of being given the chance to make a VPS varies considerably across England and Wales. For example, victims living in London were less than half as likely to be offered it as those living in Northumbria. The likelihood of the victim feeling that the VPS is taken into account also varies considerably across regions.”
Article 13 deals with the reimbursement of victims’ expenses. Once again, it is concerning that the Government appear to be back-peddling on the concrete commitments that the directive is supposed to require. Once more, we must remind ourselves that the victims commissioner’s findings are damning of the cost barriers for victims’ families who want to see justice done. I am hopeful that the Government, despite their heavily caveated words in response to article 19, will take on board the needs of victims to avoid contact with offenders and their families, and thereby avoid the all too frequent situation where a victim’s family sit alongside that of the defendant, listening to them laughing, joking and making hurtful comments.
The Government’s comments on article 20 worry me greatly. Although I have some sympathy with the view that not all victims need necessarily be interviewed, provided that other methods for hearing the voice of victims are strengthened, it feels as though the Lord Chancellor is going behind the term “proportionate” again.
I would like to spend a moment on article 23 and the relationship between the media and the privacy of victims. In much the same way as a few bad apples spoiled the reputation of the House, so the behaviour of irresponsible and, it seems, criminal elements of the media have severely damaged that profession. With reference to Bellfield’s trial, Chief Constable Mark Rowley has called for greater protection of victims and witnesses during court cases. Rowley said it was a
“most bizarre and distressing coincidence”
that the Dowler family had their privacy destroyed at a time when footballers and celebrities were being granted super-injunctions to protect details of their personal lives.
It is all well and good for the Lord Chancellor to ask that article 23 respect the principle of media independence, but at what cost? The case of Milly Dowler shows the need for greater training of professions, notably the judiciary, in how victims’ families are treated. The draft directive is a good starting point, but there are things that are not in it—notably, despite the European Commission's identifying why the 2001 framework failed, where are the teeth in these proposals? Where is the mechanism for effective redress when member states do not provide the services or support that the draft directive requires? Where are the rights to request a review of the decision on what charge the offender will face? The draft directive is an opportunity for the Government to negotiate a better deal for victims at EU level; it should not be used to make what we already do look like it fits with the directive as it is written.
Turning to the draft regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters, it can only be a positive thing that civil law protection measures issued in one member state should be recognised and applied in another, so the draft regulation is to be welcomed. I note that the European Scrutiny Committee has its reservations about safeguarding the rights of the person subject to the order as well as the person who has requested it, and although I fully understand the need to give the person subject to the order the opportunity to safeguard their rights, I have concerns about how any such safeguarding could be applied.
For example, if the person with a civil law protection measure goes on an extended holiday or goes to work in another European country for a year, would the person subject to the order need to know when and where? The regulation as drafted seems already to provide adequately, through the certification process, that an existing measure can be recognised and applied throughout the Union within the limits of the original application. Indeed, the fundamental rights safeguard at article 10 and, of course, the rights of the person subject to the order at the time it was applied for seem more than adequate, but I look forward to hearing from right hon. and hon. Members if they think otherwise on this point. I am pleased that the Secretary of State, in his explanatory memorandum dated 2 June, seems to welcome this regulation.
I will turn now to the council resolution on the road map. The road map essentially shows how both the draft directive and the draft regulation fit into an overall scheme for improving the EU’s approach to victims’ rights. Given the reasons why the Commission felt that the 2001 framework failed, it is a little sad to see the Government seeking to press for less detailed measures on how the victims directive can be brought into effect. The European Scrutiny Committee, in putting forward the document for debate on the Floor of the House, asked the Government to provide more information on the probable substance of each measure that the Commission is to propose as part of the road map.
I am grateful to the Lord Chancellor for welcoming this evening’s debate and recognise that the Government have provided a good explanation of their views in the memorandum, but sadly we seem to be lacking the additional detail this evening that the Committee requested. That point is worth repeating: the European Scrutiny Committee, in putting forward the document for debate on the Floor of the House, asked the Government to provide more information on the substance of each of the measures that the Commission is to propose. I am not sure whether the Lord Chancellor intends to provide that when he winds up—I can only hope.
A good place to begin my concluding remarks on the matters before us is the question of how the Commission’s proposals compare with the victims law for homicide cases proposed by Louise Casey. The victims commissioner has addressed the situation in the UK in homicide cases, and to my mind that is a good benchmark for what we should expect for all victims across the EU. The victims commissioner believes that a victims law should make it clear that the coroner will release the body to the family for burial within 28 days, unless exceptional circumstances apply. The proposals before us do not mention that at all, and yet we have heard from right hon. and hon. Members this evening that this is one of the fundamental issues that they feel passionately about and that affects constituents up and down the country time and again. In my humble opinion the Government are plain wrong in their stubborn refusal to implement the position of the chief coroner, and I hope that when they are made to see sense, they will also ensure that the chief coroner addresses this distressing issue and that such measures will be raised with the Commission in negotiations on the road map.
The victims commissioner also believes that the police should legally have to keep families updated at each stage of the investigation, and I believe that the draft directive addresses that key point. It must not be watered down in negotiations. Similarly, Louise Casey believes that a police protocol should be put in place for reviewing cases that remain unsolved and that it should set out clearly how and when families are to be consulted and kept updated. Again, although not part of the draft directive or road map, that is clearly an area that the Lord Chancellor’s Department should raise with the Commission.
Another point made by the victims commissioner is that families should have the right to information from the Crown Prosecution Service, and to meet the CPS lawyer at key stages of the process, including on conviction or acquittal, and on appeal. That is covered by the draft directive, and should be strongly pursued. Those needs are addressed in the draft directive, but they should be enshrined in law, with the right of redress when not met.
In conclusion, the Opposition welcome the Commission’s approach, and urge the Government not to procrastinate or seek to gain wriggle room, but to embrace the opportunity to turn the page on their recent errors of judgment, and give their approval to measures that should ensure that victims of crime across the European Union have at the very least a minimum standard on which they can rely.
Mr Kenneth Clarke
It is a long time since I have taken part in a debate on the Floor of the House on any European subject that was completely free of any controversy. [Interruption.] Certain Members were not here. We all congratulate the Chair of the European Scrutiny Committee, the hon. Member for Stafford, on selecting the measure for debate, because we all agree on the great importance of giving better protection to victims of crime, not only in this country but across the European Union.
Mr Clarke
I will not weigh up the issue of whether Stafford has lost or gained, or whether Stone has benefited or been deprived, but I enjoyed the debates on the Maastricht treaty. We were not quite as close on that occasion as we are on the directive.
This is an extremely important subject, and there is general agreement that the framework agreement of 2001 is not adequate and should be improved, which is the objective of the Commission’s documents. The proposals have received extremely widespread support, and were movingly supported by Members whose constituents had been adversely affected. The hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Stephen Twigg) cited the case of Mr and Mrs Dunne, and a constituent of my hon. Friend the Member for Ipswich (Ben Gummer) was murdered in Spain. The hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Tom Brake) discussed difficulties that he had encountered. As I said at the beginning of our debate, we are trying to raise European standards on the issue because many British citizens go abroad and their families would benefit if minimum standards—and we hope very adequate standards—were in place throughout all member countries.
It was claimed that that could be achieved by bilateral agreements with other member states. With respect, I do not think that that is practicable. The notion that bilateral agreements have to be negotiated with 26 EU member states, where the tradition of supporting victims is variable and in some cases far below that in the UK, is not the best way to proceed. I was urged by other speakers to support the Commission and the Hungarian presidency’s Budapest declaration to see what we can do to strengthen support for everyone.
Reference was made to the work of Louise Casey, the victims commissioner, who shares the views of my hon. Friends and of the hon. Member for Liverpool, West Derby about the importance of considering the problems experienced by bereaved families. Victim Support, the biggest organisation in the field of victim support, supports the proposed directive, and it has urged the Government to take a constructive approach to it. It was said that its funding had been cut, but we have responded to the opinions expressed by the victims commissioner. We need to make sure that specialist, targeted support is available for vulnerable victims. Many hon. Members have been victims of crime—probably, almost everyone—but people do not always need counselling and support afterwards. Bereaved families, however, are a particular concern of Louise Casey, who has produced a report on the subject. We have given extra support to specialist services for bereaved families and victims of rape and sexual assault. More targeted support is required. We have a code of practice in this country that also needs to be revised and improved in the light of experience, and everybody is pressing in the same direction on that.
The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South (Robert Flello) was pretty supportive of the proposals before us. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Stone (Mr Cash), he talked particularly about protection orders. The idea of mutual recognition of protection orders throughout the European Union is very valuable. These orders are usually given when someone is being harassed, often by a husband, partner or spouse with a history of domestic violence. If we do not have mutual recognition of the orders, the consequence is that every time anybody travels in Europe, they are obliged to try to get a fresh court order in the area where they are then living and give evidence again about the same experiences. Where possible, we should support this move. We have already opted into the criminal law directive on the subject, and we will do so on the civil order once we have scrutinised it to make sure that the two will work together and that particular burdens are not put on us.
My hon. Friend the Member for Stone talked about the possible resource and administrative implications for this country. I do not see any insuperable problems in the proposals, but we will obviously have to scrutinise them in detail because we cannot accept unnecessary extra resources or administrative burdens being demanded of us. That is highly unlikely because we are so far ahead in the field compared with most other member states, but we will bear that concern in mind.
Mr Clarke
Compensation for victims has been established here for very many years. We would like to see good standards established throughout the European Union because British subjects are victims of crime when they travel and should be entitled to compensation. We have to get the balance right between the proportionality that the hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South talked about and the excessive burdens that my hon. Friend the Member for Stone warned against. That is the kind of thing that we can do in the detailed negotiations that will undoubtedly have to take place before the directive can be applied.
I welcome this debate. The hon. Member for Stoke-on-Trent South raised, as he was quite entitled to, all kinds of aspects of victim support of a wholly domestic nature to which we will pay attention, as we are hoping to modernise our own code. I assure right hon. and hon. Members that we work very closely with the victims commissioner in this whole field and greatly value the contribution that she makes as an advocate of the victim’s cause. I also assure Members that decisions on opt-ins are guided, in the end, by what we regard as in the interests of British citizens and the national interest within the European Union. However, I take on board the feeling in the House that increased co-operation in this respect is plainly desirable as a benefit to all those Europeans who travel frequently throughout the Union. We will certainly take on board the views expressed by Members who have taken part in the debate when we take our decisions on all these subjects.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolved,
That this House takes note of European Union Documents No. 10610/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to the Draft Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime, No. 10613/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to the Draft Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters, No. 10612/11 and Addenda 1 and 2 relating to a Commission Communication–strengthening victims’ rights in the EU and the unnumbered Explanatory Memorandum dated 16 May 2011 relating to a Council Resolution on a Roadmap for strengthening the rights and protection of victims, in particular in criminal proceedings; and welcomes the opportunity to consider views on whether the UK should opt in to the draft Directive establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims and the Draft Regulation on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters.