Moved by
Lord Bellamy
85: After Clause 17, insert the following new Clause—
“Victim representations to mental health tribunals
(1) Chapter 2 of Part 3 of the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004 (victims’ rights to make representations and receive information) is amended as follows.
(2) In section 37(8)(c)(i), for “that area” substitute “that local probation board”.
(3) After section 37 insert—
“37ZA Victim impact statements where restriction order made
(1) This section applies if, in a case where section 37 applies, an application or reference mentioned in subsection (5) of that section is made to the First-tier Tribunal or the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales.
(2) The relevant probation body—
(a) must take all reasonable steps to ascertain whether a person who appears to the body to be the victim of the offence or to act for the victim of the offence wishes to provide a victim impact statement to the body, and
(b) if the person provides such a statement, must forward it to the tribunal.
(3) Where a victim impact statement has been forwarded to the tribunal under subsection (2), the tribunal must—
(a) allow the person who made the statement to request permission to read the statement to the tribunal at a relevant hearing, and
(b) grant such permission unless the tribunal considers that there are good reasons not to.
(4) The tribunal may have regard to the statement when determining a matter specified in section 36(5)(a) or (b) (but must not have regard to it for any other purpose).
(5) In this section—
“relevant hearing” means any hearing held by the tribunal before making a decision which disposes of proceedings on the application or reference mentioned in subsection (1);
“the relevant probation body” has the meaning given in section 37(8);
“victim impact statement” means a statement about the way in which, and degree to which, the offence has affected and (as the case may be) continues to affect the victim or any other person.””
Member's explanatory statement
This amendment makes provision for victims of certain serious offences, where the offender is subject to a hospital order with a restriction order, to provide a "victim impact statement" to a tribunal which is considering certain matters in relation to the discharge of the offender.