Clause 21 - Code of practice for victims
Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Bill [Lords]
4:30 pm
Ms Harriet Harman (Solicitor General, Law Officers' Department; Camberwell and Peckham, Labour)
Several important points have been made in the debate, and we agree with all of them, but we will resist the amendment. The hon. Member for Romsey is absolutely right. The health service has a critical role to play. A great deal of work has already been done, but there is much more to do to ensure that the health service recognises that as well as treating them for their injuries, its role is that of preventing people becoming victims of further offences. Furthermore, we in the domestic violence inter-ministerial working group regard it important that our colleagues at the Department of Health work with all the NHS organisations, including primary care, GPs, accident and emergency, health visitors and the royal colleges, to bring the health service into the whole picture of domestic violence.
Amendment No. 18 would give examples of services to be delivered to victims of crime by the agencies that are covered by the code of practice. Although it attempts to clarify and define what services may be included in the code and tries to leave open the possibility of other types of services being provided, we consider that it is too prescriptive. It could lead those who are charged with revising the code in the future to believe that any new agency obligation should fall into a category specified in the amendment.
Members of the Committee might be aware that there is a legal principle that, when illustrative examples are provided in statute, it is presumed that a definition is supposed to include only the types of issues in the illustrative example. The irony is that, by saying in a statute, ''For example, X, Y and Z'', there is the consequence of narrowing matters to X, Y and Z, which is the opposite of what the hon. Member for Chesham and Amersham said that she would like to do. That principle could restrict our flexibility when we come to finalise the first version of the code, and it could restrict it even more when the code is revised in future.
Although the hon. Lady's amendment adequately summarises the services in the illustrative draft of the code that we put before Parliament shortly after the introduction of the Bill last September, there is far more opportunity to develop new, innovative services for victims if we do not provide prescriptive examples at the outset. We are still at the relatively early stages of developing and embedding good support for victims. Despite the long decades of good practice in Victim Support, we know that we can and should be doing other things. I do not want us, in our current state of knowledge, to draw a line under that without returning to the House with primary legislation.
We take on board the points that have been raised and welcome those made on behalf of Victim Support and in respect of health services, but we urge hon. Members to resist the amendment.