Meeting of the Parliament 24 April 2024
A lack of transparency in the justice system and poor communication with victims are recurring themes. Increasingly, serious criminal cases are being referred to the children’s hearings system, and the number will inevitably continue to increase by raising the age from 16 to 18.
No one wants to unduly criminalise young people, but it would be irresponsible to overlook the rights, interests and welfare of victims, who are very often also young people. I have spoken to victims of all ages who have suffered great distress when they discovered that the young person who committed a crime against them would not go to court.
The bill will remove existing rights that some victims are already entitled to. Specifically, those who are harmed by 16 and 17-year-olds will no longer have certain rights that they would have had if the case had gone to a criminal court. That is where my amendment 68 is relevant. It will give victims a voice.
My colleague Liam Kerr spoke to my amendment 206 at stage 2. It sought to do something similar but was unsuccessful in large part due to legal technicalities. In short, I had tried to use victim impact statements as a vehicle, but they are not transferable from a court to a children’s hearings context. Amendment 68 would instead allow victims to make a personal statement to the children’s hearings panel. The principal reporter would be required to provide any victim with the opportunity to make a statement explaining how the offence has affected them.
If the Government is intent on effectively downgrading some crimes by diverting them from courts to children’s hearings, it must pay heed to victims.
A victim’s suffering is not in any way lessened because someone in the system decides that the perpetrator is too young to face criminal justice consequence.
Yesterday, we had the stage 1 debate on the Government’s Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. Much of that legislation is about improving the experience of victims and witnesses. Victims cannot be forgotten in the legislation that we are discussing today.
Amendment 68 is supported by Victim Support Scotland, which has said:
“We believe this amendment is vital to ensuring the gravity of the offence is understood and would ensure”
that crime
“victims have a voice in decisions which will significantly impact them. This would be in line with availability of victim impact statements ... in the criminal justice system.”
My previous stage 2 amendment on the issue won support from Labour and, indeed, from Willie Rennie of the Lib Dems. One Scottish National Party member even abstained. I sincerely hope that they—and, indeed, the minister—will be persuaded by this new and improved attempt to allow victims to be heard.
We support Martin Whitfield’s amendment 58, which is similar in intent to our amendment. However, I believe that ours is a little bit more detailed on how it can be achieved.
I also want to quickly address a point that Scottish Women’s Aid made in its briefing document. It says that it does not support my amendment, although it supports the intention behind it. However, on reading its submission, I am not entirely sure whether it has particularly understood that the amendment is about victims of all ages and not exclusively about victims who are also children.