Victims and Witnesses
Tackling Witness Intimidation
The Government recently published a new series of guidelines, designed to tackle witness intimidation. The document "Tackling Witness Intimidation" has been published after consultation across Government.
Title: Towards a National Strategy for Witnesses
Author: The Inter-Agency Working Group on Witnesses
Date Published: May 2003
Number of pages: 116
The Inter-agency Working
Group on Witnesses was established in summer 2002 to address the
concerns relating to witnesses and to consider how they can be
encouraged to come forward to report offences and give evidence.
The report follows several measures that were put in place following the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. These included screening witnesses in court and live TV links in court rooms.
At the heart of the strategy are recommendations for improved assessment of the risk of intimidation and a better system of fast track re-housing for victims and witnesses who may need to move locations at short notice.
Download
"Towards a National Strategy for Witnesses" 
PDF 472Kb
Last update: 24 February 2005