Victims' Commissioner consultation event: summary

Main findings

• A range of views were provided by attendees, perhaps reflecting the variety of backgrounds and organisations which were represented at the event.
• Generally, participants were in favour of establishing a Victims' Commissioner for Scotland. The exception to this was Scottish Women's Aid, who do not support the creation of a Victims' Commissioner due to concerns about funding and implications for existing victim support organisations.
• Attendees were generally in favour of the Victims' Commissioner being independent of Scottish Government and statutory.
• Attendees were also generally in favour of the Victims' Commissioner having a duty to engage with victims and victim support organisations, and there was some discussion on how such engagement should and could take place.
• Similarly, there was general support for the Victims' Commissioner being required to submit reports to the Scottish Parliament, with discussion on the format this should take.
• There was some disagreement about the proposal that the Victims' Commissioner should not intervene in or champion individual cases. Most attendees appeared to agree with this proposal due to the cost and resource pressure this would create for the role. Generally, it was supported that the Victims' Commissioner would utilise individual cases to inform their view of wider issues in the criminal justice system.