Victim Notification Scheme - Independent Review: SG response

Ministerial Foreword

We welcome the report of the Independent Review of the Victim Notification Scheme and thank Alastair MacDonald and Fiona Young for their leadership and dedication to the review. We appreciate their inclusive approach and insight into what a reformed system could look and feel like.

We are also grateful to all those from justice agencies, victim support organisations and elsewhere who contributed to the review, and for their continued engagement to inform our response.

In particular, we want to thank the victims who spoke to the review about their experiences of the VNS. We know from the report that this engagement came at personal cost and want to express our wholehearted respect and admiration for the courage it will have taken for people to talk about their personal experiences.

There is no doubt that we all want to improve communications with the victims of crime. Therefore, we are pleased to agree the vast majority of the review’s recommendations and to say that we have already begun work on their implementation.

Importantly, we will introduce the key innovation from the review - to establish a victim contact team to provide personalised support for victims. Delivering this new team will be a priority for this government.

This new team will enable personal communication, provide opportunities to explain the process and answer questions, offer choice to victims according to their needs and wishes, increase autonomy, and bring greater flexibility to the system.

We want work to take place as quickly as possible but know that when it comes to legislation that can often take much time. Therefore, we intend to use the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, which is currently at Stage 2, to deliver the recommendations that need primary legislation. The fact that this Bill is still within Parliament, presents an opportunity we must grasp so we can deliver at pace the benefits of VNS reform we all want to see.

Maree Todd MSP

Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport

Siobhian Brown MSP

Minister for Victims and Community Safety

October 2024