Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Act 2025

9 Victims’ charter

(1) The Commissioner must—

(a) prepare and publish a charter for victims (to be known as “the Victims’ Charter”) before the expiry of the period of 12 months beginning with the day on which this section comes into force,

(b) lay a copy of the charter before the Scottish Parliament,

(c) review the charter at least once during each period of 12 months beginning with the day on which the charter was published and, thereafter, within 12 months of the charter last being reviewed,

(d) revise the charter as the Commissioner considers appropriate following such a review,

(e) as soon as reasonably practicable after revising a charter, publish the charter as revised.

(2) The charter—

(a) must set out—

(i) a description of the criminal justice system,

(ii) the interactions that it is possible for a victim to have with the system,

(iii) the communications which a victim will receive in the course of those interactions,

(iv) the rights of a victim in those interactions,

(v) the mechanisms available to a victim for upholding those rights,

(b) may include such other information as the Commissioner considers appropriate.

(3) The persons invited by the Commissioner to participate in the preparation of the charter—

(a) must include—

(i) victims,

(ii) persons providing victim support services,

(iii) criminal justice bodies,

(b) may include such other persons as the Commissioner considers appropriate.

(4) The Commissioner may prepare more than one charter in order to make different provision for different categories of victim or for victims of different types of offence, and references to the charter are to be construed accordingly.

(5) Paragraphs (b) to (e) of subsection (1) and subsections (2) to (4) apply to a revised charter as they apply to the charter prepared under subsection (1)(a).

(6) For the purpose of subsection (1)(a), it is immaterial that anything done by way of preparation was done before the Bill for this Act was passed or after that but before this section comes into force.