Dame Vera Baird resigns as victims’ commissioner
24.09.2022 - 07:45
/ msn.com
letting down victims over rape, burglary and theft. In a resignation letter to the new Justice Secretary, Brandon Lewis, she accused the Government of sidelining her and downgrading victims’ interests.
She said the criminal justice system was in “chaos” but added that she could not stay on given the way she and victims had been treated by the Government. She revealed she had not had any access or meetings with his predecessor, Dominic Raab, for the eight months since February when she was told she would not be reappointed and would have to reapply for the three-year post, unlike her predecessor.
“The lack of engagement from the top at a time of great upheaval for victims reflected poorly on the MoJ’s priorities and the Government’s approach,” she wrote. This was followed in July by an announcement by Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, that the appointment process was being aborted and rerun even though she had been told by MoJ officials she was an “appointable” candidate.
She was invited to re-apply but she described it as a “ploy to keep me in place as a nominal post-holder in the short-term [rather] than a genuine invitation” as the Government had passed up two chances to reappoint her and she no longer had access to ministers. “Coupled with this, the Victims’ Bill remains inadequate and the ‘British Bill of Rights’ so severely threatens victims’ human rights that it undermines what little progress the Victims’ Bill is set to bring,” she said.
“I am told the Bill of Rights is set to return in some form and that its withdrawal was only temporary. Further, little has been done to effectively tackle the enormous and catastrophic backlog of cases, particularly in the Crown Court where the most serious crimes are tried.
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