Victim and Witness Experience of the Northern Ireland Criminal Justice System - Key Findings 2019/20
The five year Victim and Witness Strategy ‘Making a difference to victims and witnesses of crime: Improving access to justice, services and support’ published in June 2013 outlined steps to be taken over the 5 year period to provide better quality services which respond to the needs of victims and witnesses of crime and thus secure a more positive experience for those who have contact with the criminal justice system. To date there have been seven administrations of NIVAWS. The survey was initially administered annually between 2008/09 and 2011/12 in order to meet a performance indicator requirement linked to the Comprehensive Spending Review at that time. Subsequent to that and, in light of the fact that the findings were not seen to change to any great extent from year to year, a decision was taken to reduce the frequency of the survey; hence it was run again in 2013/14, 2016/17 and more recently in 2019/20.