Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: Amendment 5

What happened: 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.

Why it matters: 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 politics: 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.