Victims and Courts Bill: motion to disagree with Lords Amendment 5

MPs voted on 25 March 2026 to reject Lords Amendment 5 to the Victims and Courts Bill, which would have allowed the 28-day deadline for challenging unduly lenient sentences to be extended in exceptional circumstances. The motion to disagree with the Lords passed by 292 votes to 162, Division number 465. The Government argued the amendment was legally flawed as drafted and promised to bring forward its own workable version. Lords Amendment 5 concerned the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme, under which victims and families can ask the Attorney General to refer a sentence to the Court of Appeal for review if they believe it is too low. Under current law, that request must be made within 28 days of sentencing. The amendment passed by the Lords would have allowed that deadline to be extended in exceptional circumstances. The Government's rejection means the 28-day limit remains in place for now, though ministers committed during the debate to legislating for a workable alternative. Victims and bereaved families who were not informed of their rights within the 28-day window remain unable to make late applications under the current statutory framework. The vote divided cleanly along party lines. All 286 Labour and Labour and Co-operative MPs who voted backed the Government's motion to reject the Lords amendment. All 85 Conservatives, 58 Liberal Democrats, 4 Greens, 3 Plaid Cymru, 3 DUP, and 3 Reform MPs who voted opposed it, joining the cross-party bloc that wanted to retain the Lords change. The Government also rejected five other Lords amendments to the same Bill on the same day, in each case by comparable margins of roughly 290 to 160.