Clause 10 - restraining orders: England and Wales
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
9:10 am
Ms Vera Baird (Redcar, Labour)
There is concern among women's groups that there is no opportunity for the victim, at the end of a trial, to have some input into the kind of order that will be made. She may be there, as the hon. Member for Beaconsfield conceded, but she may well not. In some cases, the victim of a crime may
just want to give evidence, leave and hear the outcome of the case later. There is no compulsion to remain to the bitter end, and she may not feel the impulse to do so.
There may be no opportunity to instruct the Crown Prosecution Service as to exactly what kind of order would help. More importantly, the victim should be there while the terms of the order are debated before the judge, because the orders are likely intimately to affect her life and relationships. We are talking about domestic violence on the part of a person who may well remain the father of the defendant's children. It seems slightly cavalier for a blanket order to be made without the defendant having any input at all, and there does not seem to be any reason why she should not have the opportunity to have input. Of course, that is part of the sentencing process and normally does not involve representations from elsewhere. However, there is a pretty direct analogy with victim impact statements: that is not the latest term for them; I have forgotten what it is—