Policy background Raising awareness of the Victims’ Code
Though specified bodies already had processes in place to inform victims about the Victims’ Code, during the pre-legislative scrutiny process, stakeholders highlighted that more should be done to make victims aware of the Victims’ Code.
	The Act therefore places a duty on the specified bodies as outlined above, to take reasonable steps to promote awareness of the Victims’ Code among users of the services that they provide and amongst other members of the public.
	Supporting guidance will underpin the duty and will provide recommendations on how bodies may fulfil this duty. This allows for flexibility for the bodies to choose how they meet this duty, recognising the expertise that these bodies will have in determining the most appropriate method and timing of bringing the Code to the attention of victims and other service users.
	The effectiveness and implementation of the duty to promote awareness of the Code amongst service users will be overseen by the Code compliance monitoring framework. This will enable appropriate data collection, and local and national governance of compliance with the duty.