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.