Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: New Clause 12
166Ayes
322Noes
Defeated · majority 156 · Government won161 did not vote
649 Members · Aye 166 · No 322 · DNV 161 · grey dots in centre are abstentions
Analysis
Commons
Commons
Parliament voted on 27 October 2025 on New Clause 12 to the Victims and Courts Bill, proposed by Joshua Reynolds, the Liberal Democrat MP for Maidenhead. The clause would have required the Secretary of State to add an appendix to the Victims' Code giving formal rights and structured support to close relatives of British nationals murdered or killed abroad. The vote was defeated by 322 votes to 166. The practical effect of the defeat is that around 80 families a year who lose a relative to murder or manslaughter outside the United Kingdom will continue to fall outside the Victims' Code. Those families currently receive no statutory entitlement to information, support or formal recognition when navigating foreign legal systems at a time of bereavement. New Clause 12 would have closed that gap by extending the Code's framework, through a dedicated appendix, to cover this group. The vote divided sharply along party lines. All Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted backed the No lobby, accounting for the bulk of the 322 who defeated the clause. Every Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Plaid Cymru and Reform UK MP who voted supported the Ayes. The Greens, the Democratic Unionist Party and most independent MPs also voted Aye. No cross-party rebellion on the government side was recorded.
Voting Aye meant
Support requiring the Government to add an appendix to the victims code giving formal rights and support to families of British nationals murdered abroad, closing a gap that leaves around 80 families a year without statutory backing.
Voting No meant
Oppose the new clause, likely on the basis that the Government intends to address this issue through other means or that the Bill is not the appropriate vehicle, rather than opposing the principle of supporting such families.
Each row is one party. The stacked bar gives the within-party split of Aye / No / Absent; the columns on the right give the raw counts. The whip column shows the published party position — “Free vote” means the whip was formally removed for this division.
Party
Whip
Aye / No / Abs
Aye
No
Abs
Labour Party
Whipped No
0
284
77
Conservative and Unionist Party
Whipped Aye
82
0
34
Liberal Democrats
Whipped Aye
60
0
11
Labour and Co-operative Party
Whipped No
0
36
6
Independent
—
7
2
4
Scottish National Party
—
0
0
9
Reform UK
Whipped Aye
4
0
4
Sinn Féin
—
0
0
7
Democratic Unionist Party
Whipped Aye
3
0
2
Green Party of England and Wales
Whipped Aye
3
0
1
Plaid Cymru
Whipped Aye
4
0
0
Social Democratic and Labour Party
—
0
0
2
Your Party
—
1
0
1
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
—
0
0
1
Restore Britain
—
0
0
1
Speaker
—
0
0
1
Traditional Unionist Voice
—
1
0
0
Ulster Unionist Party
—
1
0
0
Source · Hansard · UK Parliament Votes API · whip status from announced positions; “free vote” indicates the whip was formally removed
Bill delivers real, tangible victim protection measures including restricting parental responsibility for rapists, voiding NDAs that silence victims, and improving court processes; opposes widening some provisions (e.g. removing sentencing threshold) to avoid overwhelming family courts and to test the approach carefully before expansion.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (9,106 words) →
Welcomes the Bill's victim-centred approach but identifies gaps: victim contact scheme should extend to offenders serving less than 12 months, all victims need free court transcripts, government should make statements on victim reviews within two weeks, and local authorities must prepare victim support strategies to prevent postcode lotteries.Liberal Democrat · Voted aye · Read full speech (1,628 words) →
New clause 2 should require courts to identify children affected by parental imprisonment at sentencing; existing statutory guidance is non-binding and children remain unsupported; 190,000 children affected annually but no clear timeline for government delivery on manifesto commitment.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (1,891 words) →
New clause 12 essential to end anomaly where families of murder victims killed abroad receive no structured statutory support while domestic victims do; bereaved families navigate foreign legal systems alone and deserve same baseline victim code protections as domestic cases.Labour · Voted aye · Read full speech (1,449 words) →
Government new clause 14 corrects historic injustice by preventing rapists from exercising parental responsibility over children conceived through rape; law change validates survivor testimony and uses law to protect women and children.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (134 words) →
Amendment on parental responsibility corrects injustice where children are protected from convicted sex offenders but their own children are not; government taking steps to protect both children and parents from vile sex offenders.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (122 words) →
Victim impact statements currently too restrictive; Violet-Grace Youens' parents felt silenced by court limitations on what could be said; victim statements are important for victims to be heard and acknowledged.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (82 words) →
Bill's domestic abuse support welcome but incomplete without concrete measures improving court capacity; victims arriving for trial only to have case pulled due to lack of capacity demonstrates systemic failure that legislation alone cannot fix.Liberal Democrat · Voted aye · Read full speech (137 words) →
Sources
Division dataUK Parliament Votes API
DebateHansard · Commons
Stance analysisAI analysis · Claude 4.x
LicenceOpen Parliament Licence v3.0