When a crime is not a crime

Should victims of rail crashes have the same rights as victims of a robbery? Robert Verkaik reports

Passengers injured in rail crashes and workers hurt in industrial accidents may be denied the right to be treated as victims of crime during investigations into breaches of health and safety laws. Ministers have decided that the new bill of rights for victims, trumpeted by the Home Secretary this year as a centre piece of the Government's criminal justice reforms, will exclude offences that are not being prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

It could mean thousands of passengers and workers whose injuries are caused by criminal failings investigated by the Health and Safety Executive will be denied the right to present a victim statement to the court.

The decision has angered groups campaigning on behalf of the families of passengers killed in recent rail tragedies, including Clapham, Hatfield and Southall, which have all been investigated by the Health and Safety Executive.

David Bergman, the director of the Centre for Corporate Accountability, says that victims of workplace crime and railway accidents were just as much victims as someone who is robbed in the street. "Many of them suffer horrific injuries," he adds. Nevethelesss, it seems ministers have decided to draw the line at health and safety crime, although they want the new rights to be extended to victims of road traffic accidents.

The Home Office says: "We are not bringing in health and safety victims at this stage although we have not ruled them out for the future." The Home Office adds that after consultation ministers had decided to extend the bill of rights to victims of road accidents because the "impact upon this key group was profound and far-reaching".

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said in March that he intended to give the bill of rights statutory force as soon as parliamentary time allowed so that victims of crime will have a voice during the prosecution of their case. He says: "Victims of crime are still, too often, treated with indifference or with disrespect. I am not having that. These are the very people the criminal justice system should protect and defend, the very people who should be cared for and considered at every stage and by every element of the justice process."

Mr Blunkett said he also intended to appoint a commissioner for victims and to establish a government advisory panel made up of victims of crime and their relatives.

The Home Secretary insisted the measures were necessary because public confidence in the criminal justice system was "unquestionably low".

Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has said that he wants victims to be given a better deal in the criminal justice system. The Home Office said yesterday none of these new measures will benefit victims of work and transport crime. Campaigners said the decision to extend these rights to no further than victims of road accidents will have a disproportionate impact on those injured in railway accidents because of the difficulty in bringing corporate manslaughter charges to court, a crime prosecuted by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Mr Bergman said the decision to exclude health and safety victims was even more surprising, given that the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, had told the Magistrates' Association in 1998 that a "person who is injured as a result of a breach of health and safety legislation is no less a victim than a person who is assaulted".

A total of 485 deaths were reported to the Health and Safety Executive in the 11 months up to February this year, compared to 394 in the same period the year before.