Court Transcript Costs 2025-03-11
2025-03-11
TAGS
Response quality
Questions & Answers
Q1
Partial Answer
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Context
The previous government launched a pilot to provide free sentencing remarks to victims of sexual violence, but communication issues resulted in many eligible survivors missing out on the opportunity. The scheme has since been expanded.
The previous Government launched a pilot scheme to provide free sentencing remarks to victims of sexual violence. However, thousands of eligible survivors only found out about it months after it started. Poor communication meant that victims missed out on the opportunity for some closure. Will the Justice Secretary confirm whether the pilot has been properly evaluated, whether its findings will be made public, and what steps will be taken to improve awareness and accessibility for those who need to use the scheme?
The hon. Member is absolutely right that initially there was not enough uptake. The Government acted to drum up awareness of the scheme precisely because we want to test its effectiveness for victims of rape and serious sexual offences. I reassure her that application numbers are up. We are conducting the evaluation, and once we have the results, we will be able to test whether we can implement the scheme in the future.
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Assessment & feedback
Publication of findings and specific steps to improve awareness were not fully addressed.
Under Review
Conducting Evaluation
Response accuracy