My Lords, Amendment 2 is in my name and would clarify the content of regulations that may be introduced under Clause 50 for the provision of support and assistance to victims. I have spoken both in Committee and on Report about the importance of putting support and assistance provision into legislation and, in particular, the benefit of setting out the minimum range of support and assistance to be provided. There are three key reasons why I continue to think that this is important.
First, it will give confidence to victims and support workers that they will receive support and therefore it will encourage more victims to come forward to seek help. This point of view has been expressed by victims’ organisations and the pre-legislative evidence review, chaired by Mr Frank Field MP. Secondly, putting the basic principles of support and assistance into legislation will provide a strong framework to ensure consistent standards and availability of care across the country, strengthened by monitoring and auditing mechanisms.
The third reason for putting details of support and assistance into legislation is that it will ensure that provision will meet our obligations by allowing parliamentary scrutiny in a way which policy provision alone cannot. The review of the NRM was extremely welcome, although it was disappointing that it found many of the same problems identified by the evaluation report of the Council of Europe group of experts known as GRETA when it visited four years earlier in 2011. Putting support and assistance provisions into domestic law will focus the attention of the Government in a way that international obligations have not.
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It is a matter of some regret for me that we have not been able to add detailed support and assistance provisions to the Bill. I am grateful to the Minister for giving the option of secondary legislation at some point in future and I hope that it will not be long before we see those regulations. However, I continue to have concerns about the disparity in statutory rights between victims in England and Wales and those elsewhere in the UK. As I have said, I continue to believe that there is a great benefit for victims by putting these provisions into legislation. I therefore strongly encourage whoever might be in leadership in the Home Office when the NRM pilots are completed to use the enabling power under Clause 50 and to put support and assistance provision into regulations. I can assure your Lordships that when the evaluation of these pilots is published we will be looking at it very carefully and will continue to raise this matter with whoever is responsible.
Although Amendment 2 does not put support and assistance into primary legislation, nor does it alter the enabling nature of Clause 50, I have introduced it because I believe we need clarity about the content of the secondary legislation about support and assistance, just as we have done in Clause 48, which gives rather more specific direction about the matters to be contained in regulations for independent child trafficking advocates.
On Report, during the debate on the introduction of this clause and my amendment on the subject, various noble Lords urged the Minister to consider further. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, specifically highlighted the absence of any mention of
the kinds of support and assistance in the new enabling clause and asked the Minister to,
“reflect on whether a reference to the types of assistance set out in the convention and directive could be added to the reference to guidance in Clause 49 and the enabling clause”.—[Official Report, 25/2/15; col. 1679.]
The enabling clause is Clause 50. The noble Baroness, Lady Howe, expressed concern about the varying standards of care and welcomed the provision in my Report stage amendment regarding minimum standards and auditing processes. The noble Baroness asked the Minister to,
“reflect on how key elements ensuring consistency in standards of care might be incorporated into the regulations that he proposes”.—[Official Report, 25/2/15; col. 1681.]
The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, invited the Minister to look further at the need to give greater detail about the minimum level of assistance to be provided and the circumstances of that provision. I was grateful for the Minister’s response that he would reflect further on the comments made in the debate. I was rather hoping that the Government might introduce an amendment such as mine in order to provide the assurance and clarity that your Lordships had been seeking during our Report stage debate.
Amendment 2 gives an indication of the matters that should be covered in the regulations for providing support and assistance to victims under Clause 50. It ensures that the support and assistance under the regulations will fulfil international obligations and sets out clearly, as per the Council of Europe convention, that support should be for victims’ physical, psychological and social recovery. It also stipulates that the support and assistance should be provided in a manner that adheres to international treaties and in particular taking account of issues to do with the victim’s consent to receive support, their need for safety and any special needs that the victim might have, such as disability or illness. The amendment also makes it clear that support must not be conditional on a victim acting as a witness. Additionally, the amendment requires the regulations to address how support services will be monitored and audited to ensure that standards are being met.
I welcome the Minister’s comments on Report that Clause 50 will allow for regulations to be made about accommodation, financial assistance, assistance in obtaining healthcare and the provision of information, translation and interpretation services, which are the kinds of support detailed in the convention and the EU directive. However, the fact that the clause allows such details to be included in regulations is not the same as directing that they should be covered. Can the Minister confirm that it is the Government’s intention that regulations under Clause 50 and guidance on this topic under Clause 49 should cover the specific points I have outlined in my Amendment 2 about both the types of support and the manner in which it is provided?
I was also grateful for the Minister’s comments at Report regarding the inclusion of minimum standards in the tendering process for the new victim care contract. Can he give further details of the processes to provide the routine inspection of care provision under the contract that he also referred to at Report?
As I conclude my speech at the end of the passage of this Bill, in which I am proud to have played a small part, along with so many others in this House and in another place, I express my thanks to the Minister for the open and constructive way in which he steered this Bill through your Lordships’ House. I sincerely hope that our aspirations that this piece of legislation will make a difference to victims will be borne out in the months and years to come. I shall certainly be watching its progress and implementation carefully to ensure that the assistance and support provided in England and Wales meets our international obligations and is of a consistent standard.