Annex C - List of relatives who can be eligible to take part in the Victim Notification Scheme
{back to para 37} Back to consultation question 5(b)}
Where the victim has died, the 4 relatives ranked highest in the list below can register for the scheme.
- Where the victim is incapacitated only the highest listed person may register.
- Where the victim is a child under 14, the parent or carer is the person who can register on the child's behalf.
Where the direct victim is unable to communicate, but this can be overcome by a human or mechanical aid ( e.g. where the victim is unable to write but can tell someone else what he/she wants to say) the right to join the VNS stays with the victim.
If the offender would otherwise be eligible the right will not transfer to him or her but to the next person listed.
The list is:-
(a) spouse/civil partner
(b) co-habitee *
(c) son or daughter or any person that the victim had parental rights or responsibilities towards
(d) father or mother or any person who had parental rights or responsibilities towards the victim
(e) brother or sister
(f) grandparent
(g) grandchild
(h) uncle or aunt
(i) nephew or niece
The elder of any two persons described in any one of paragraphs (a) to (i) is to be taken to be the higher listed person, regardless of sex.
*"Cohabitee" means a person, whether or not of the same sex as the victim, who has lived with the victim, as if in a married relationship, for at least six months and was living with them immediately before the offence was committed.