Policy background The role of the Victims’ Commissioner
The Secretary of State is required to appoint a Commissioner for Victims and Witnesses, as set out in section 48 of the 2004 Act. The Commissioner’s functions are set out in section 49 of that Act.
	The Act amends the 2004 Act to ensure the Victims’ Commissioner is able to undertake these functions as effectively as possible and promote the interests of victims and witnesses across England and Wales. To ensure the ongoing visibility of the Victims’ Commissioner and increase parliamentary and public focus on victims’ experiences, the Act creates a requirement for the Victims’ Commissioner’s annual report to be laid before Parliament.
	The Act also places a duty on specified relevant criminal justice agencies and Government departments to respond to any recommendations made to them within the Victims’ Commissioner’s reports within 56 days of the report being published. The response will have to set out the actions taken or proposed actions in response to the recommendation, or set out why the agency has not taken, or does not propose to take, action in response to the recommendation. These responses must be published, and a copy sent to the Victims’ Commissioner and the Secretary of State.
	Additionally, although Police and Crime Commissioners will have oversight of the operation of the Victims’ Code at a local level, the Victims’ Commissioner will retain the existing responsibility to keep under review the overall operation of the Code. To bring this in line with the new Code compliance approach in the Act, the role of the Victims’ Commissioner will be updated to make it clear that their duty to keep under review operation of the Code includes keeping under review the extent to which agencies’ are complying with the duty to provide services in accordance with the Code, unless they have a good reason not do so. It is intended that the Code compliance oversight guidance will contain information regarding mechanisms that will be available to the Victims’ Commissioner, should they choose to utilise them in order to work with Police and Crime Commissioners in their new role.
	The Act also provides for the Victims’ Commissioner to request that specified public authorities co-operate with the Commissioner in any way that the Commissioner considers necessary for the purpose of monitoring Code compliance along with a duty for those bodies to comply with that request insofar as it is reasonably practicable to do so.