Help for victims of crime

What support can I get?

The National Probation Service operates the probation victim contact scheme which provides eligible victims with information about offenders sentences at key stages.   A victim liaison officer will provide you with information about how the Parole Board considers and makes decisions about offenders' cases. The officer will explain how you can put your views to the Board in a victim personal statement and how you can put forward your views about restrictions which may be attached to an offender's licence which are necessary for your or your family's protection.

You can ask your victim liaison officer for copies of the two National Probation Service explanatory leaflets "Making your views know to the Parole Board about the role of offenders" and "Parole Board oral hearings". 

Victim Support

Victim Support is the national charity which helps people affected by crime and provides free and confidential support to help people deal with their experiences. www.victimsupport.org.uk

Victim Support also runs Supportline. Trained personnel provide support over the phone or get you in touch with your local Victim Support service.

Phone - 0845-30 30 900
E-mail - supportline@victimsupport.org.uk

National Offender Management Victim Helpline

If you are a victim of crime or are related to a victim and have received unwanted contact (by letter or telephone) from a prisoner or are worried about their release from prison, telephone the Prison Service Victim Helpline.

www.hmprisonservice.gov.uk/adviceandsupport/helpforvictims

Phone - 0845-7585 112

You can also write to the helpline at the following address:

National Offender Management Service Victim Helpline
P.O. Box 4278
Birmingham
B15 1SA

Code of Practice for Victims

If you've been a victim of crime, the Code of Practice for Victims of Crime sets out the services you can expect to receive from each of the criminal justice agencies, like the police and the Crown Prosecution Service. For the first time these agencies are required by law to provide details of the minimum standards of service that they will provide to you.

The Parole Board has the following obligations under the Code of Practice:

• The Parole Board must consider any representations that victims have offered to the Probation Service on the conditions to be included in the release licences of prisoners serving sentences subject to consideration by the Parole Board and reflect these considerations in the parole decisions. Conditions relating to the victim should be disclosed to the victim through the Probation Service, and where a licence condition has not been included, the Parole Board should provide an explanation for the non-inclusion.
• The Parole Board must consider any information regarding the victim that relates directly to the current risk presented by a prisoner in deciding whether or not to grant or recommend release and reflect this in the parole decision.

Victims' Voice

Victims' Voice is an umbrella charity which provides a 'voice' for its affiliated organisations and individual members. It raises issues that arise when people are bereaved by sudden and traumatic death and have to cope with the involvement of police, coroners, mortuaries, hospitals and the courts. www.victimsvoice.co.uk

National Victims' Association

National Victims' Association is a service provider to the families of homicide, such as advocacy, counselling and support.

www.victimsfirst.co.uk

E-mail - info@victimsfirst.co.uk

Phone - 0191 - 4232210

Post - PO Box 111, Jarrow NE32 5TE, Tyne & Wear

The Survivors Trust

Phone - 01788 550554

E-mail - via website

Post - The Survivors Trust, 27b William Street, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV21 3HA

The Parole Board for England and Wales

Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX

Telephone 0845 251 2220