The Ministry of Justice currently funds Victim Support for the provision of support to witnesses attending criminal courts in England and Wales. Funding for this support beyond March 2015 is currently subject to a competitive commissioning process.<\/p>
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In developing the requirement specification for the service from April 2015, the Ministry of Justice took the views of a number of organisations working in the field of support for victims and witnesses. This included NSPCC, who provided valuable input drawn from practitioner experience in supporting young witnesses.<\/p>
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The requirements of the service include that witnesses should receive tailored support which meets their individual needs, and there is particular emphasis on ensuring the service meets the needs of young, vulnerable and intimidated witnesses. Support for young witnesses includes the provision of a Young Witness Pack, age appropriate explanations about court proceedings, and where needed support at pre-trial visits and home visits. Support will also include supporting and facilitating the attendance of parents or adults accompanying a young witness to court.<\/p>
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The service is part of wider arrangements within the Criminal Justice System to support young witnesses at court, including use of special measures such as screens around the witness box to shield the witness from the defendant, use of live-links or recorded evidence-in-chief and a Registered Intermediary to aid communication.<\/p>
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As part of our recent announcement detailing our Commitment to Victims, all vulnerable victims and witnesses will be given greater opportunity to give evidence away from the court building, and we will work towards rolling out pre-trial cross examination for child victims nationally, subject to the evaluation of ongoing pilots.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1528", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Mike Penning"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Hemel Hempstead"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mike Penning"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2014-10-21", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2014-10-21T14:31:04.7551201Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "54"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Justice"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2014-10-14", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Witnesses: Young People"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps the Government has taken to investigate the feasibility of rolling-out the NSPCC Young Witness Service that was launched in Northern Ireland to the rest of the UK.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/4129", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Ian Paisley"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "North Antrim"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Ian Paisley"} ], "uin" : "210606"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }