EMMA LEWELL-BUCK: Public faith in institutions is being tested to the limit under this Government

Not surprisingly it falls short on its intended aims.

Something long called for by colleagues on the Labour benches and countless victims and their families is a public advocate. The advocate would represent their interests after disasters like Hillsborough, the Manchester Arena bombing, and the Grenfell Fire.

These families deserve proper justice and to know that the hell they have suffered won’t be repeated, but instead the Government have introduced their own watered-down version of an advocate. Such is their failing that the Victims Commissioner for London has slated the Bill stating: “It won’t deliver any meaningful change to victims in its current format”.

When it comes to the victims’ code the Bill contains no defined rights for victims and states only that agencies “should” comply with the victim’s code – so it doesn’t have to be upheld, and, when it isn’t, there is nothing anyone can do about it. They haven’t even appointed a Victims Commissioner after the last one stood down in September.

When it comes to our courts almost half across the country have closed and the current court backlog stands at 63,000 cases with fewer than 2% of reported rapes leading to a charge; with an average wait of three years for a case to be heard.The former Justice Secretary, who was later dismissed for bullying, used the Bill to give himself and any future Secretary of State the power to decide on prisoner releases, something unheard of in democratic countries.

Public faith in institutions is being tested to the limit under this Government. This Bill was a chance to put victims front and centre once but again the Tories have squandered that chance and it is victims and their families who will have to keep fighting for themselves, those they mourn and to ensure past injustices are never again repeated.