Leadership and funding required to improve experiences of crime victims, report says

Leadership and adequate resources are required to improve the experiences of victims and witnesses engaging with the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland, a new report has concluded.

The Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland, Jacqui Durkin, said many victims continued to experience a fragmented approach and positive initiatives for specific groups of victims and witnesses, like domestic and sexual abuse, were not always joined up.

Ms Durkin has delivered a follow-up review to criminal justice services following a previous inspection in 2020.

She said: “Inspectors found there were many dedicated individuals doing good work who were focused on meeting the needs and improving the experience of victims and witnesses.

“We acknowledge the positive work they are doing but their commitment will only go so far without leaders prioritising a real change in victim and witness services.

“All victims and witnesses should be able to access their victim charter and witness charter entitlements and service standards.

“Every victim and witness deserves human dignity and respect from everyone in the criminal justice system.”

Inspectors found a “mismatch” between how well inspected organisations believed they had implemented recommendations from the previous report and the independent assessment of progress based on fieldwork and the evidence they examined.

The report said three recommendations from 2020 had been fully achieved, 10 were partially achieved and three were not achieved.

While work had been undertaken to progress the four strategic recommendations for improvement, none had been fully achieved.

Ms Durkin said it was disappointing to find that despite a lot of work being completed to design and agree a new operating model and better services provided in the Victim and Witness Care Unit, a lack of funding meant it could not be progressed.

She said: “This has the potential to be a real game changer in how victim and witness needs are assessed and met throughout the duration of a criminal case.

“It was needed before the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic further increased delays in the progress of cases through the criminal justice system and unfortunately, investment in pandemic recovery does not seem to have resulted in better victim and witness care for all cases.

“The Victim and Witness Care Unit needs to be resourced to do what its name suggests, provide victim and witness care.

“It is important that plans are developed to keep pushing for the full implementation of this and other outstanding recommendations, even where budgets are not currently available and we don’t currently have a Minister of Justice to decide to prioritise them.”

Ms Durkin said positive initiatives for specific groups of victims and witnesses, like domestic and sexual abuse, were not always joined up with the criminal justice system.

Inspectors found that some aspects of a communications plan to promote and raise the profile of the Victim Charter and Witness Charter were scaled back and had not progressed because of budget pressures.

Ms Durkin said: “Victims and witnesses in Northern Ireland deserve better.

“They are entitled to at least charter rights and minimum standards being respected and delivered.

“We do not need any more recommendations, we need leadership, influence and leverage across the criminal justice system to drive improvement and ensure organisations work better together.

“With this in mind inspectors will return to carry out a further follow-up review to review progress and assess evidence of impact on the experience of victims and witnesses.”