Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: New Clause 4

What happened: The House of Commons voted on New Clause 4 to the Victims and Courts Bill during the bill's Report Stage on 27 October 2025. The clause, tabled by the Conservative opposition, was defeated by 337 votes to 152. The Victims and Courts Bill as a whole was proceeding through its Report Stage, a parliamentary phase where the full House considers amendments to legislation already examined in committee.

Why it matters: The Victims and Courts Bill is a substantial piece of legislation aimed at reforming how the criminal justice system treats victims, covering areas including victim impact statements, parental responsibility for convicted rapists, non-disclosure agreements, and support services for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence. New Clause 4 specifically concerned families of British nationals murdered abroad, a group currently excluded from protections and entitlements set out in the Victims' Code. Around 80 families each year are affected by this gap, and the clause sought to extend statutory support to them as they navigate unfamiliar foreign legal systems, often receiving news of their loved one's death through journalists rather than official channels. Its defeat means this extension of the code does not form part of the bill as it progresses.

The politics: The vote divided almost entirely along government-versus-opposition lines. All 323 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted did so against the amendment, while all 81 Conservatives and all 62 Liberal Democrats who voted supported it. Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party also voted in favour. No Conservative or Liberal Democrat voted against, and no Labour MP voted in favour, making this a near-perfect party whip exercise on both sides. The government's own bill attracted considerable cross-party praise during the debate, particularly for Government New Clause 14 restricting rapists' parental responsibility over children conceived through rape, but opposition amendments including New Clause 4 were uniformly rejected. The Liberal Democrat MP for Maidenhead had tabled New Clause 12 on the same subject of British nationals murdered abroad, and Conservative shadow minister Dr Kieran Mullan spoke in support of that campaign during the debate, but the government maintained that its existing provisions were sufficient and that the amendment was unnecessary.