The Victims and Prisoners Bill section on Victim Impact Statements to Tribunals came into force on 25 June 2025.
We’ve had a Tribunal refuse to accept a family’s VIS at a Tribunal last week, saying they couldn’t accept it as the application for a hearing had been made before June 25.
There doesn’t appear to be anything in the actual law (section 21 of the V&P Act that actually says this.
Was the Tribunal acting unlawfully?
Or is there another explanation?
The explanatory notes to the Regulations state that “These entitlements will apply to applications or references made to the Tribunal on or after the day on which section 21 comes into force (25th June 2025).”
I recognise this doesn’t constitute part of the actual Regulations/Act - I’ll look at the commencement provisions later to see where that’s explicitly stated.
Lovely! Very educational indeed.
I’m not sure what’s going on.
Could this be relevant? [The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Commencement No. 6) Regulations 2025] - sorry I’m banned from posting links due to misbehaviour.
Thanks - I wasn’t aware of the explanatory notes, but I can’t find that in the original legislation so wonder where it’s come from.
It seems a bit of a stretch.
I agree it’s not at all clear cut, but I think the explanatory note is consistent with the wording of the section itself.
The way the section is structured,
the tribunal must consider accepting a statement forwarded to it by probation, which probation has obtained after fulfilling its own prior duty to ask the relevant victims if they want make such a statement.
Per new s37ZA(1) that prior duty on probation only arises when an application/reference “is” (not “has been”) made.
Because there was no such prior duty on probation in relation to an application/reference made before the commencement day, there can be no consequential duty on the Tribunal.
The provision is here - The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Commencement No. 7) Regulations 2025
The original Act is here -
It’s in Section 21