Rights and Protection of Victims

Tom Brake Excerpts

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[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.