Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: New Clause 12

What happened: The House of Commons voted on New Clause 12 to the Victims and Courts Bill at Report Stage on 27 October 2025. The clause, tabled by Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat, Maidenhead), would have required the Secretary of State to update the Victims Code to extend its protections to the relatives of British nationals murdered abroad, a group of around 80 families each year who currently fall outside the code's provisions. The amendment was defeated by 322 votes to 166.

Why it matters: Under the existing Victims Code, families of murder and manslaughter victims in England and Wales are entitled to a range of statutory rights and support services. Families of British citizens killed overseas receive no equivalent statutory entitlement, meaning they must navigate foreign legal systems, untranslated documents, and unfamiliar bureaucratic processes without formal state support. New Clause 12 would have placed a duty on the government to close that gap. Its defeat means those approximately 80 families annually will continue to fall outside the code, at least for the duration of this Bill. The broader Victims and Courts Bill itself, which includes separate measures on compelling offenders to attend sentencing hearings, restricting rapists' parental responsibility, and voiding non-disclosure agreements that silence victims, continues its passage.

The politics: The vote divided along clear party lines. All 320 Labour and Labour Co-operative MPs who voted went through the No lobby, while Conservatives (82), Liberal Democrats (61), and smaller parties including Reform UK, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, the Greens, and the Ulster Unionist Party all voted Aye. There were no notable cross-party rebels. The government's opposition to the clause reflected its preference for the existing Bill provisions rather than an objection to the underlying principle; the Minister, Alex Davies-Jones, praised the work on families of those murdered abroad during her closing speech. The vote sits within a period of active criminal justice legislation, with the related Sentencing Bill also progressing through Parliament in the same weeks.