The Criminal Justice Joint Inspection response to the Victims’ Commissioner’s recommendation

The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 amends sections 49 and 51, and Schedule 9, of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. Itrequires the Victims’ Commissioner to arrange for their annual report to be laid before Parliament.

Departments and agencies under the Commissioner’s remit and named in the Commissioner’s reports must publish their response to any recommendations directed at them. They must do so within 56 days of publication of the Commissioner’s report. They must explain the action they have taken or propose to take in response to each recommendation, or why they haven’t taken action or don’t plan to do so. This makes sure actions in response to the Commissioner’s recommendations to improve victims’ experiences are examined more closely.

The criminal justice inspectorates are under the Commissioner’s remit. They are required to respond to any recommendations directed at them in the Commissioner’s reports.

In the Annual Victims’ Survey 2023, the Victims’ Commissioner made the following recommendation:

“We recommend that the criminal justice inspectorates (of constabulary, Crown Prosecution Service, prisons, and probation) incorporate the provision of communications to victims with accessibility needs into their thematic inspections of victims’ services. This should be assessed against the benchmark set out in Right 1 of the Victims’ Code: All service providers must communicate in simple and accessible language and all translation or interpretation services must be offered free of charge to the victim.”

We have published a joint response to this recommendation.