My Lords, I thank all noble colleagues and friends around the House who have spoken about such an important area: victims murdered abroad. I also thank my noble and learned friend the Minister and his officials for meeting me and other Peers, as was highlighted, to discuss this amendment and how we might find a way forward. I am grateful to the officials who have worked with my office to see whether there is scope for compromise.
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As has already been said, to lose a loved one to homicide is truly devastating, and I stand here because I know that only too well. When the death happens in the UK, the system wraps itself around you, and you are guided through what can feel like a surreal process of inquests, court hearings and meetings with the police, barristers and support workers. However, when that death happens in another country, as is the case for just 60 to 80 families a year, why is it that the experience is very different, when these are UK citizens? They are suddenly confronted with an alien legal system, a different language and logistical problems, such as finding out how to get the body returned or what is happening with the police investigation—all at a time when they are trying to support each other while grieving and not having a clue where to go next.
They will also discover that here in the UK—the country they call home, where they have lived all their life and where they pay their taxes—they are not formally recognised as a victim of crime and the victims’ code does not apply to them. They may have a family liaison officer, a coroner’s inquest and access to the national Homicide Service. If the perpetrator is repatriated, the victim’s family will be offered access to the victim contact scheme. That sounds well, but they do not fall within the victims’ code; they have no statutory entitlements.
Instead, they are reliant on discretionary support. A family liaison officer may be allocated to them, but only at the discretion of the chief constable of that force. Access to the national Homicide Service is at the discretion of the Justice Secretary. Access to financial assistance appears to be at the discretion of caseworkers. Any support that they receive from the victim contact scheme is entirely discretionary; it is not set out anywhere in law. Neither will they have a code of practice that they can refer to. The agencies that work with these victims—the police, the FCDO and the MoJ—have a memorandum of understanding, on which I worked alongside those agencies, but that document is for officials to use and is not intended for victims.
Clearly, the UK victims’ code cannot apply to a foreign jurisdiction. I recognise that, as do the victims’ families. I am calling for the discretionary support offered by UK agencies here at home to fall within the remit of the UK victims’ code. I want to see these families—whom I have sat with and listened to for many years—move from discretion to statutory entitlements, all clearly set out in a legal document with which compliance is a legal requirement. Where agencies fail to comply, there should be clear lines of accountability. As has been said, the costs of such a move are miniscule but the impact on the families would be huge. For the first time, they would be part of the British justice system, which is where they belong.
To close, I will leave your Lordships with this thought. I know that the Minister, whom I admire greatly, will tell the House that this amendment would create a precedent. However, in 2015, following the Sousse terrorist attack on UK holidaymakers on a beach in Tunisia, the Government, directed by the Prime Minister, set up a cross-government task force, of which I was a member, to co-ordinate support for the victims and their families. It achieved a great deal in a short space of time. It even established a compensation
scheme for them. It showed me that, where there is a political will, we can move mountains. Today, I am not asking noble Lords to move mountains; I am asking them to show the political will to bring these families, who find themselves in exactly the same situation as the Sousse families, in from the cold and give them the legal entitlements they rightly deserve.