Victims and Courts Bill

Emily Darlington Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 27th October 2025 Commons Chamber

We must also recognise those who pick up the pieces after the unimaginable happens to their loved ones, such as someone discovering that their partner has abused their child, or grandparents stepping in to care for children after perpetrators of domestic abuse drive their partner to destitution. One in 20 adults are closely related to a victim of serious assault. According to analysis from researchers at the Violence and Society Centre, people related to victims of violence are four times more likely to feel unsafe in their neighbourhood and twice as likely to have depression or an anxiety disorder than people not related to victims of violence. They themselves face unique challenges, including stress, guilt, trauma and depression. These are all things that parents and carers must balance while dealing with the practical, everyday challenges they face while navigating the legal system, co-ordinating with agencies, understanding safeguarding procedures and trying to access therapy for those they care for.

[Emily Darlington (Milton Keynes Central) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Lowestoft (Jess Asato) for her fantastic speech. I recently met some kinship carers who with very little support often take on family members who have suffered terrible trauma and abuse. They do not understand the child’s trauma and they do not understand how best to support them. Does my hon. Friend agree that, in order to get the best results for child victims, we need to think about how we extend support to kinship carers, so that they can support those children who have been through the worst of times?

[Jess Asato]

I absolutely agree that kinship carers, parents and partners are different from those of the primary victim, and they need support in their own right. When we fail those third-party victims, we fail the primary victim, too. We allow them to disengage from the legal process, and we deprive them of the wraparound support they need when they are at their most vulnerable.

New clause 11 is supported by the organisations Restitute, We Stand, Acts Fast and Ivison Trust, and a version of it was first laid by Baroness Sal Brinton in the other place in a Bill last year. It would place a statutory duty on commissioners to ensure that appropriate independent services are available for the parent, guardian or person responsible for the care of a victim who is under 18 at the time of the offence, or who is an adult at risk of harm. Once again, that should already be happening—it is supposedly a right in the victims code. The independent inquiry into child sexual abuse recommended that support for non-abusing parents and carers should be statutory. New clause 11 would bring that crucial recommendation to fruition. Families should not have to wait years; they want action now. As with victim services, severe funding shortages fail to make the ambition set out in the code a reality.

Together, new clauses 10 and 11 would ensure that if any one of us here, or someone we cared for, were abused or exploited, we or they would be supported. It is an ambition long supported that must now be met with action. I look forward to working with the Minister and colleagues across the House on saving our specialist services and saving victims and their families, and I will be pleased to vote for the Bill tonight.