Making the justice system better for victims: consultation - easy read

A new Victims' Commissioner

The Scottish Government thinks that there should be a Victims' Commissioner in Scotland.

This is a person who makes sure that the justice system is working for victims.

We think the Victims' Commissioner should be independent.

This means that they are not part of the Scottish Government.

We have some ideas about what the Victims' Commissioner could do.

These are:

• making sure that everyone knows how victims should be treated in the justice system
• making sure that organisations in the justice system treat victims properly
• telling the Scottish Government and organisations in the justice system how they can make things better for victims

We need to decide if the Victims' Commissioner is only for victims of crime or if they could look at other areas including:

• the children's hearings system which helps to protect and support children and young people
• cases where a person from Scotland has been a victim of crime in another country
• the civil court

The civil court is different to the criminal court.

It does not decide if a person has broken the law.

It helps to sort out disagreements or arguments between people.

It can stop a person from contacting someone they have harmed.

We need to make sure that the Victims' Commissioner is doing a good job.

This could mean writing rules that say what the Victims' Commissioner must do.

This could mean telling organisations how to work with the Victims' Commissioner.

We do not think that the Victims' Commissioner should work on single cases.

We do not think that they should deal with complaints or give legal advice.

We think that there are other people and organisations who already do this.

We would like to know what you think about what the Victims' Commissioner will do.