Victims and Courts Act 2026 rights start on 13 August

If you read the official title and felt your eyes glaze over, let’s translate it. The government has switched on the first small part of the Victims and Courts Act 2026 for England and Wales. From 13 August, some victims have a clearer legal route to ask for information about an offender when safety is a concern. (gov.uk) This is not the whole Act starting at once. It is the first commencement regulation, which means one set of rules used to bring selected parts of a law into force before others. (legislation.gov.uk)

In UK law, Parliament can pass an Act and still leave parts of it asleep until ministers choose a start date. The Victims and Courts Act 2026 does exactly that, because section 18 allows the Secretary of State to bring different sections into force at different times through later regulations. (legislation.gov.uk) **What this means:** this statutory instrument is basically the legal on-switch. It does not create every victim protection promised by the Act overnight, but it does activate the parts needed for one new information route to begin. (legislation.gov.uk)

The driest-looking change is also the one that matters most. These regulations switch on the part of section 7 about victims’ rights to make representations and receive information, but only where it links to specific Schedule 2 provisions. Those provisions insert new sections 44M and 44O into the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. According to legislation.gov.uk, section 44M is a new power to disclose information to victims, while section 44O says existing probation powers are not cut back by this new route. (legislation.gov.uk) That wording matters because victims’ rights often rise or fall on process. If the law clearly states who can disclose information, and under what conditions, it becomes easier for victims and support workers to know which door to knock on. This is why the government said the wider Act was meant to give victims more certainty about how to receive information about an offender while a sentence is being served. (gov.uk)

So what can happen in practice? If a victim asks the probation service for information, and probation believes the victim could face physical or psychological harm if nothing is shared, section 44M allows information to be provided through the same sort of framework used by existing victim information schemes. The legislation.gov.uk text ties this to cases including offenders serving prison or detention sentences and some offenders subject to mental health orders. (legislation.gov.uk) **A simple way to read that:** this is about risk and safety, not curiosity. The law is building a route for information-sharing where keeping a victim in the dark could make harm more likely. (legislation.gov.uk)

It is also worth slowing down on what this change does not do. It does not mean every victim will automatically receive every detail about every offender, and it does not mean the whole Victims and Courts Act 2026 is now live. This is a partial start, aimed at the information-sharing parts needed for the new probation-based power to work. (legislation.gov.uk) For readers who support victims in schools, colleges or community settings, that distinction is important. You can think of this as a clearer request route, backed by statute, rather than a blanket right to unlimited disclosure. (gov.uk)

Some of the most technical wording appears where an offender is in the mental health system rather than prison. In those cases, the original explanatory material says information duties can fall not only on probation but, depending on the case, on the clinician in charge of the patient’s care, hospital managers and tribunals. The bill’s explanatory notes show that hospital managers, clinicians and the First-tier Tribunal can all have roles in passing on information in certain mental health cases. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk) If you have ever wondered why victims’ law can feel hard to follow, this is a good example. One victim’s case may sit with probation, while another may involve a hospital or tribunal because the offender is detained under mental health law. The rule is trying to cover both situations instead of pretending they are the same. (legislation.gov.uk)

The final piece is section 44O, and it is easy to miss. That section says the new power does not wipe away any other power probation services already have under Part 3 of the 2004 Act. In plain English, the new route adds another tool; it is not supposed to close off older ones. (legislation.gov.uk) For victims, that is modest but useful. From 13 August, the law is a little clearer about how safety-based information requests can work in England and Wales. For all of us trying to read justice policy without a law degree, that is the real story here: not a dramatic headline, but a practical change that could matter a great deal to someone waiting for information that affects their safety. (gov.uk)