Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to take a call on this bill. While it's actually quite a non-controversial bill I think it's really really important in terms of what it does for those serving in the armed forces. What it does is it makes sure that the victims of serious offences of a sexual or violent nature get the same rights as they would in the civilian justice system and that's absolutely crucial because I think experiencing these things as a victim is the same wherever you are in terms of your workplace. One of the rights—the right to be consulted on the accused's release from bail—is actually in the military justice system already but there's a whole lot of other things that we've talked about tonight that actually aren't. So what this bill does is it adds a whole new lot of things and rights for victims and it adds a new section to the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971. While the onus is still on the Director of Military Prosecutions to consult the victim when they're talking about whether the offender should be released on bail it adds a whole lot of other things in terms of informing those victims and keeping them in touch with what's happening with the process. Some of the important ones are actually informing the victim if the accused or the offender is indeed released on bail because I think that has a whole lot of safety and security issues for those victims and if they are released informing the victim if there's any conditions about the release that are to do with the safety of them or their family and in particular things like any conditions about the accused not actually contacting them or members of their family. Also if the offender does breach these conditions making sure that the victim is aware of that plus also if the accused escapes or the offender dies in custody—being aware of those things is crucially important. What research suggests is that if you are a victim of a violent crime then you experience further trauma if you're not kept fully informed and up to date with what's happening and taken through the process about what's happening now and why. But in contrast if you are informed if your views are taken into account and if you're consulted it can have significant therapeutic effects for the victim and it can also help with their recovery. I think it's also got other spillover effects because if other people who are thinking about potentially stepping forward with their own experiences see other victims having good experiences in terms of being kept up to date and knowing what's going on they may be more likely to actually step up themselves and engage in a process. I think some of this is the culture change. When the National Council of Women submitted in support of this bill they were thinking about some of those effects in terms of what's happening in our military system at the moment. So just to sum up I think ensuring the victims of serious crimes receive the same rights in the military courts as they do in the civilian courts is really really crucial because it will ensure better outcomes for the victims in our armed forces. So I therefore commend this bill to the House.