Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: Amendment 5
153Ayes
332Noes
Defeated · majority 179 · Government won164 did not vote
649 Members · Aye 153 · No 332 · DNV 164 · grey dots in centre are abstentions
Analysis
Commons
Commons
The House of Commons voted on Amendment 5 to the Victims and Courts Bill at Report Stage on 27 October 2025. The amendment was defeated by 332 votes to 153. Report Stage is the point in the legislative process where the full House considers proposed changes to a Bill that has already passed through Committee scrutiny. The Victims and Courts Bill is a wide-ranging piece of legislation aimed at reforming how the criminal justice system treats victims of crime. The Bill includes measures on compelling convicted criminals to attend their sentencing hearings, restricting parental responsibility for rapists over children conceived through their crime, voiding non-disclosure agreements that silence victims of crime, and expanding the victim contact scheme. Amendment 5 sought to change specific provisions within these reforms, but the government successfully argued against it, and the Bill will proceed without that amendment incorporated. The vote divided almost entirely along government-versus-opposition lines. All 321 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted did so against the amendment, while Conservatives (81), Liberal Democrats (59), Plaid Cymru (4), Reform UK (4), the Democratic Unionist Party (3), and the Ulster Unionist Party (1) all voted in favour. The Greens voted with the government against the amendment. One independent voted for the amendment while seven voted against it. There were no Labour rebels. The defeat of the amendment reflects the government's commanding Commons majority, and the Bill's broader passage has been marked by cross-party collaboration on several of its headline measures, even where specific amendment proposals were rejected.
Voting Aye meant
Support expanding compensation rights for child sexual abuse victims, including those whose own criminal records stem from their abuse circumstances
Voting No meant
Oppose this particular amendment, likely preferring the government's own approach (New Clause 14 on parental responsibility) or opposing the specific eligibility changes proposed
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
81
0
35
Liberal Democrats
Whipped Aye
59
0
13
Labour and Co-operative Party
Whipped No
0
37
5
Independent
—
1
7
5
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 No
0
3
1
Plaid Cymru
Whipped Aye
4
0
0
Social Democratic and Labour Party
—
0
0
2
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
Your Party
—
0
0
1
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