Victims and Courts Bill Report Stage: New Clause 12
166
Ayes
—
322
Noes
Defeated · Government won
161 did not vote
Analysis
Commons
Commons
**What happened:** The House of Commons voted on New Clause 12 to the Victims and Courts Bill at Report Stage on 27 October 2025. The clause, tabled by Joshua Reynolds (Liberal Democrat, Maidenhead), would have required the Secretary of State to update the Victims Code to extend its protections to the relatives of British nationals murdered abroad, a group of around 80 families each year who currently fall outside the code's provisions. The amendment was defeated by 322 votes to 166. **Why it matters:** Under the existing Victims Code, families of murder and manslaughter victims in England and Wales are entitled to a range of statutory rights and support services. Families of British citizens killed overseas receive no equivalent statutory entitlement, meaning they must navigate foreign legal systems, untranslated documents, and unfamiliar bureaucratic processes without formal state support. New Clause 12 would have placed a duty on the government to close that gap. Its defeat means those approximately 80 families annually will continue to fall outside the code, at least for the duration of this Bill. The broader Victims and Courts Bill itself, which includes separate measures on compelling offenders to attend sentencing hearings, restricting rapists' parental responsibility, and voiding non-disclosure agreements that silence victims, continues its passage. **The politics:** The vote divided along clear party lines. All 320 Labour and Labour Co-operative MPs who voted went through the No lobby, while Conservatives (82), Liberal Democrats (61), and smaller parties including Reform UK, Plaid Cymru, the DUP, the Greens, and the Ulster Unionist Party all voted Aye. There were no notable cross-party rebels. The government's opposition to the clause reflected its preference for the existing Bill provisions rather than an objection to the underlying principle; the Minister, Alex Davies-Jones, praised the work on families of those murdered abroad during her closing speech. The vote sits within a period of active criminal justice legislation, with the related Sentencing Bill also progressing through Parliament in the same weeks.
Voting Aye meant
Support requiring the government to provide better support, communication and guidance to families of UK citizens murdered overseas
Voting No meant
Oppose this specific new clause, likely because the government has its own measures or considers the clause unnecessary alongside existing provisions in the Bill
488 voting MPs. Each dot is one vote; left-to-right by party. Grey dots in the centre are the 161 who did not vote.
Aye
No
Absent
Labour PartyWhipped No
0
284
78
Conservative and Unionist PartyWhipped Aye
82
0
34
Liberal DemocratsWhipped Aye
61
0
11
Labour and Co-operative PartyWhipped No
0
36
6
Independent
7
2
4
Scottish National Party
0
0
9
Reform UKWhipped Aye
4
0
4
Sinn Féin
0
0
7
Democratic Unionist PartyWhipped Aye
3
0
2
Green Party of England and WalesWhipped Aye
3
0
1
Plaid CymruWhipped Aye
4
0
—
Social Democratic and Labour Party
0
0
2
Alliance Party of Northern Ireland
0
0
1
Speaker
0
0
1
Traditional Unionist Voice
1
0
—
Ulster Unionist Party
1
0
—
Your Party
0
0
1
Bill delivers real, tangible victim protection measures including restricting parental responsibility for rapists, voiding NDAs that silence victims, and improving court processes; opposes widening some provisions (e.g. removing sentencing threshold) to avoid overwhelming family courts and to test the approach carefully before expansion.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (9,106 words) →
Welcomes the Bill's victim-centred approach but identifies gaps: victim contact scheme should extend to offenders serving less than 12 months, all victims need free court transcripts, government should make statements on victim reviews within two weeks, and local authorities must prepare victim support strategies to prevent postcode lotteries.Liberal Democrat · Voted aye · Read full speech (1,628 words) →
New clause 2 should require courts to identify children affected by parental imprisonment at sentencing; existing statutory guidance is non-binding and children remain unsupported; 190,000 children affected annually but no clear timeline for government delivery on manifesto commitment.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (1,891 words) →
New clause 12 essential to end anomaly where families of murder victims killed abroad receive no structured statutory support while domestic victims do; bereaved families navigate foreign legal systems alone and deserve same baseline victim code protections as domestic cases.Labour · Voted aye · Read full speech (1,449 words) →
Government new clause 14 corrects historic injustice by preventing rapists from exercising parental responsibility over children conceived through rape; law change validates survivor testimony and uses law to protect women and children.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (134 words) →
Amendment on parental responsibility corrects injustice where children are protected from convicted sex offenders but their own children are not; government taking steps to protect both children and parents from vile sex offenders.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (122 words) →
Victim impact statements currently too restrictive; Violet-Grace Youens' parents felt silenced by court limitations on what could be said; victim statements are important for victims to be heard and acknowledged.Labour · Voted no · Read full speech (82 words) →
Bill's domestic abuse support welcome but incomplete without concrete measures improving court capacity; victims arriving for trial only to have case pulled due to lack of capacity demonstrates systemic failure that legislation alone cannot fix.Liberal Democrat · Voted aye · Read full speech (137 words) →
Sources
Division dataUK Parliament Votes API
DebateHansard · Commons
Stance analysisAI analysis · Claude 4.x
LicenceOpen Parliament Licence v3.0