Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to implement the European Directive 2012/29/EU on victims of crime; and what assessment he has made of the implications of that Directive for the work of the police and Crown Prosecution Service.

The Government is committed to fully implementing the EU Victims’ Directive by the deadline of 16 November 2015. By signing up to the Directive, we are promoting improved standards on the entitlements, support and protection available to victims of crime across the EU and to the benefit of UK citizens.

The Government produced an impact assessment when we made our opt-in decision on the draft version of the EU Victims’ Directive in 2011 and assessed that some articles in the Directive could have associated costs for the police and prosecution services. Amendments to some of these provisions were secured during negotiations on the Directive.

The Government will explore the implications of the final version of the Directive when we implement it in November 2015.