Victims and Prisoners Act 2024

6 Code awareness and reviewing compliance: criminal justice bodies

(1) Each criminal justice body which provides services in a police area must—

(a) take reasonable steps to promote awareness of the victims’ code among users of those services and other members of the public, and

(b) keep under review whether and how those services are provided in accordance with the duty in section 5(1).

(2) A criminal justice body which provides services in a police area must, in particular, undertake the following activities in such manner as may be prescribed—

(a) collect prescribed information about the provision of those services;

(b) share prescribed information about the provision of those services with—

(i) each other criminal justice body which provides services in the police area, or such of those bodies as may be prescribed, and

(ii) the elected local policing body for the police area;

(c) review information shared under paragraph (b) with the bodies with whom the information is shared.

(3) In subsection (2), “prescribed” means prescribed in regulations made by the Secretary of State.

(4) Regulations under subsection (2) may, in particular—

(a) prescribe different information to be collected or shared by different bodies;

(b) prescribe different information in relation to different services;

(c) prescribe information relating to the characteristics or experiences of users of services;

(d) prescribe the times at which, or periods within which, information must be collected, shared or reviewed;

(e) prescribe the form in which information must be collected or shared, or require information to be collected or shared in such form as may be specified in a notice issued from time to time by the Secretary of State.

(5) Before making regulations under this section, the Secretary of State must consult the Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses and such other persons as the Secretary of State considers appropriate (and it is immaterial for these purposes whether the consultation is carried out before or after this section comes into force).

(6) In this section, “criminal justice body” means—

(a) the chief officer of police for the police area in question;

(b) the Crown Prosecution Service;

(c) the Lord Chancellor, in the exercise of functions under section 1 of the Courts Act 2003 or section 39 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007;

(d) the Secretary of State, in the exercise of functions in relation to prisons;

(e) a youth offending team established under section 39 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998;

(f) the Secretary of State, in the exercise of functions in relation to probation provision within the meaning of Part 1 of the Offender Management Act 2007 (see section 2(1) of that Act).

(7) In subsection (6)(d), “prison” includes any youth detention accommodation within the meaning given by section 248(1) of the Sentencing Code (detention and training orders).