Exclusion of road crash victims from Victim Services Code
Road victims continue to be neglected and discriminated
against. Unlike other crime victims, road crash victims are
still excluded from the basic provision of service obligations by
agencies such as the police, Crown Prosecution Service or
courts.
RoadPeace protested to the Home Office when the first draft of
the code excluded all bereaved and injured road crash victims and
held a meeting on this topic of their Parliamentary Group. The Code
was amended to include some of the bereaved for some of the
services, but excludes ALL those injured in a road crash. On the
other hand these services are available even to a person who has
been subjected to a conduct which "was intended or likely to
deprive the person of his or her property or damage his or her
property"!
RoadPeace wrote to all their Parliamentary Group
members with the request to register their protest at this with
Baroness Scotland, the Home Office minister responsible for victim
issues.
The following members informed RoadPeace that they had
written:
Ann Keen MP, Syd Rapson MP, Baroness Scott, Annette Brooke MP,
Peter Bottomley MP, George Howarth MP, Bob Russel MP, Betty
Williams MP, Jim Cunningham MP, and John Randall MP.
They all received the same reply from Baroness Scotland,
informing them that the bereaved will be entitled to 'relevant
police obligations', and 'where a charge is brought, relevant Crown
Prosecution Service and courts obligations'. Regarding the
seriously injured, Baroness Scotland wrote: "Those who are
seriously injured will be excluded from the Code as a whole because
no national system currently exists in any agency for responding to
their needs."
All Parliamentarians were also informed of three pilots
(involving some 5% of the bereaved in total and not expected to be
completed for two years at least) in respect of services for road
victims, which is the reason given for not providing any support to
95% of the bereaved. RoadPeace had repeatedly applied to the Home
Office for funding for their national 7-day helpline, but was
refused on the grounds that the pilots are taking place...
RoadPeace will once again ask their Parliamentary Group members
to urge Government not to leave out injured road victims from the
provision of the Code, in particular those seriously injured, on
such unconvincing grounds.
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