{"id":3905,"date":"2021-03-10T10:30:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policecommissioner.net\/a-victims-law-must-one-day-soon-become-a-reality\/"},"modified":"2021-03-10T10:30:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T10:30:53","slug":"a-victims-law-must-one-day-soon-become-a-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/policecommissioner.net\/a-victims-law-must-one-day-soon-become-a-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"A victims law must one day soon become a reality"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As Police & Crime Commissioner, my role is to be your voice in <\/span>#policing<\/span><\/span> in <\/span>#gloucestershire<\/span><\/span> .<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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One part of the role, and something i take really seriously is the being the voice of victims.<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
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Failing criminal justice system<\/span><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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I think we all know our criminal justice system is creaking and the underinvestment in it over the last decade has really been exposed during the coronavirus pandemic. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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I chair the local criminal justice board and my office oversees the commissioning of many victims services. And we are doing our bit to try and make the system better.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Some success<\/h3>\n
If you\\’re a regular reader of my website, you\\’ll know I\\’ve tried to lobby for a new court building for our county – sadly to no avail.<\/div>\n
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I was however successful in getting a Nightingale Court<\/a> for Cirencester after nearly a year of trying, this is proving to be really useful in trying to get swifter justice but the backlog is still daunting.<\/div>\n
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Voice of victims in the system<\/h3>\n
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My role is to champion and advocate on behalf of victims.<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Since 2006 we have what\\’s called the Victims\\’ Code, its outlines what victims and witnesses can expect from statutory partners like the police, CPS , the Courts Service as well as the Probation service. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Recently the government has consulted<\/a> on \\”beefing\\” it up. And a new code<\/a> comes into force on April the 1st. <\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Locally my team, led by my deputy PCC Chris Brierley who is my nominated lead for victims, have worked on a localised \\”pledge\\”building on VCOP.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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