The London Victims Summit 2023

Claire Waxman OBE was appointed in 2017 by Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, to be London’s first Independent Victims’ Commissioner, and was subsequently reappointed in May 2021.

Claire has undertaken an ambitious programme of work to transform the criminal justice system to provide a better experience for victims of crime. She works alongside victims, amplifying their voice, and promoting their interests throughout the criminal justice journey; ensuring their experiences are used to inform and shape practices, policies, and service provision.

Her achievements in the role include convening London’s first ever Victims’ Summit; publishing the Victims Code of Practice Review and London Rape Review; holding a series of roundtables to better understand the experiences of specific groups of victims; and successfully lobbying for key changes to the Domestic Abuse Bill. 

Victoria Derbyshire is a journalist and broadcaster, currently one of the main presenters of the BBC’s Newsnight current affairs programme. 

Prior to Newsnight she hosted a morning current affairs programme on the BBC called the Victoria Derbyshire Programme from 2015 - 2020, which featured original stories, interviews, and debates. 

She has interviewed Claire Waxman several times about her experience of stalking and the wider criminal justice system on her morning programme and Newsnight, so is very aware of Claire’s experience and the challenges victims face. 

She has also presented BBC current affairs programme Panorama and previously worked on and presented the morning news programme on BBC Radio 5 Live from 1998 to 2014. 

She also campaigns to raise awareness of breast cancer – she was diagnosed with the disease in 2015 and recorded video diaries about her cancer treatment, which were viewed millions of times online. 

Jade Blue McCrossen-Nethercott is a rape survivor and campaigner who shares her own experience of the criminal justice system to advocate for change.  

Her story was highlighted in the BBC Three documentary Sexsomnia; Case Closed? which followed her battle for justice after the Crown Prosecution Service wrongfully dropped her case. Jade waived her anonymity to speak publicly about the mistakes in her case, and the devastating emotional impact, in the hope that it will lead to improvements for other victims of rape and sexual assault. 

Jade has been involved in several roundtables and working groups regarding the victim’s pathway in the criminal justice system. This has included working with the CPS, Met Police and Claire Waxman, Victims’ Commissioner for London. Providing feedback and helping develop current services, shaping new policies and procedures in addition to feedback sessions and internal training videos for Ministry of Justice and Crown Prosecution Service. 

Tracey is the Founder and CEO of The Josh Hanson Trust, a charity established in memory of her late son Josh whose life was taken from him in an unprovoked knife attack in 2015.

Her charity supports and advocates for children, young people and adults who are victims of crime as they navigate the criminal justice system.

She is a member and co-chair of the London Victims’ Commissioner’s Victims Reference Group, vice chair and victims care officer of the Brent Police Independent Advisory Group and a Patient Safety Partner for Central and North West NHS Trust.

Tracey is calling for Josh’s Law to be captured in the Victims Law, which will ensure that victims are informed about their right to appeal at the time of sentencing. 

Sadiq Khan was born in London and has lived here all his life. His parents moved to London from Pakistan in the 1960s. He was state-school educated in Tooting before studying Law at the University of North London. Sadiq and his wife have two daughters.

Sadiq became a solicitor specialising in human rights and was a councillor in the London Borough of Wandsworth from 1994 to 2006.

In 2005 Sadiq was elected MP for Tooting. He was appointed Minister of State for Communities in 2008 and later became Minister of State for Transport, becoming the first Muslim and first Asian to attend Cabinet. He was also Crossrail Minister.

In 2013 Sadiq was appointed Shadow Minister for London, and in 2015 he led the Labour Party campaign in London in the General Election.

Sadiq is a big sports fan, especially football, boxing and cricket. He ran the 2014 London Marathon, raising money for the Evening Standard's Dispossessed Fund.

Edward Argar was appointed Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice on 27 October 2022, with responsibility for victims of crime, sentencing, and criminal law.

He was previously Chief Secretary to the Treasury in the course of 2022, and Paymaster General and Minister to the Cabinet Office. Prior to that he was Minister of State at the Department for Health and Social Care between 2019 and 2022.

Edward began his ministerial career at the Ministry of Justice, as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State with responsibility for victims of crime, female offenders and youth offenders, and subsequently HMCTS, between 2018 and 2019. He has been Conservative MP for Charnwood since 2015.

Dr Hannana Siddiqui is a multi-award winning researcher and policy advocate working at Southall Black Sisters as Head of Policy, Campaigns and Research, and as a freelance consultant.

She has worked on violence against black and minority ethnic (BME) women and girls in the UK for over 35 years. Her wide range of work has included undertaking casework, strategic litigation and expert reports as well as policy advocacy, campaigning, providing training to professionals and research on domestic abuse, forced marriage, domestic homicide and so called ‘honour killings and ‘honour’ based abuse (HBA), suicide and self-harm, immigration and asylum law, no recourse to public funds (NRPF), racism and religious fundamentalism.

Latest publication includes 'No Safe Place' (Ad Lib Publishers) with Bekhal Mahmod about Bekhal’s life of so called 'honour' based abuse and the tragic 'honour killing' of her sister, Banaz Mahmod. 

Sophie was a Hackney councillor from 2006 until her appointment by the Mayor of London in 2016. She was Deputy Mayor of Hackney Council, with lead responsibility for crime and community safety, environmental health and trading standards, equalities and neighbourhood and civic engagement. 

Sophie was part of the senior leadership that saw Hackney awarded 'Council of the Last 20 Years’ (2016) by the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) Awards, the LGC Editor’s Award for Partnership Working (2014) for their ground breaking gangs unit, and a rating of ‘excellent’ in the Local Government Equality Framework 

She was a special adviser at the Home Office from 2001 to 2004. While there Sophie worked with the Home Secretary and Ministers on policy development and strategy, including: police reform, crime and antisocial behaviour reduction, neighbourhood policing and reducing the harm caused by illegal drugs. From 1997 to 2001 Sophie was a special adviser to David Blunkett in the Department for Education and Employment. 

Sophie has been a member of the Local Government Association (LGA) Safer Communities Board, a peer reviewer for the LGA on community safety, and a member of the HMIC advisory board on PEEL (the police effectiveness, efficiency and legitimacy programme) inspections. 

 Sophie has worked in the voluntary sector as a campaigns and policy manager, campaigning to end child poverty. She has also worked in the private sector as a director of public affairs. 

Martin Hewitt is Chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).  He was appointed in April 2019. 

He began his policing career with Kent Police in 1993 and transferred to the Metropolitan Police Service in 2005. 
 
As an Assistant Commissioner for five years, Martin led frontline and local policing, specialist crime and professional standards. He led the national police response to adult sexual offences and kidnap between 2014 and 2019, and served as a Vice-Chair for the NPCC from 2015 before taking on the chairmanship. 

Nick joined the Met in 1998 and has served in a number of roles in uniform and CID.  Following 8 years in the Met Nick moved to Wiltshire where he moved through the ranks to Supt, undertaken roles such as Head of Crime and Area Commander with North and West Wiltshire.  In 2015 Nick moved to Thames Valley Police where he was the Head of Serious and Organised Crime and Public Protection before moving to the Borough Commander of Reading, overseeing critical incidents such as the 2020 terrorist attack in Forbury Gardens. 

 On promotion to the rank of Commander Nick moved back to the Met in 2022 to take up a Chief Officer post as the head of Criminal Justice and the MPS lead for victims.  

 In addition to a range of operational roles, from response to neighbourhoods, to CID and specialist detective roles Nick has also been involved in supporting development and leadership across policing.  This has led to Nick being appointed as the NPCC lead for Leadership across policing.  

Claire has worked as the ISVA Manager for Survivors UK since November 2022. SurvivorsUK are a pan London Charity supporting boys, men and gender non-conforming people from the age of 13 years old.

Claire moved from Poole in Dorset in September 2022 to London where she spent 4 years as a Children & Young Persons ISVA supporting male and female survivors, whilst working on the charities Helpline. She also has experience in Children’s Social Care within the MASH and supporting children with learning and behavioural difficulties. She is a wife and a Mother to a 20-year-old Son! 

Appointed as Commissioner in July 2022, with the task of reforming the Metropolitan Police Service, Sir Mark Rowley is a leader in national security, policing, crisis and risk management and transformation.  

Widely recognised as a resilient, strategic and thoughtful leader during his policing career spanning more than three decades, Sir Mark Rowley began as the 29th Commissioner on 12th September 2022. As the first Commissioner with the privilege of swearing his allegiance to His Majesty The King, he pledges to bring More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards to the Metropolitan Police Service. 

He returns to policing having dedicated the last four years to helping a range of organisations find innovative and imaginative solutions to some of society’s most complex challenges; mental ill health, extremism, online abuse and illicit finance. 

Sir Mark has led and developed diverse teams whilst tackling some of the UK’s toughest policing challenges. A Cambridge University graduate who began his policing career in the West Midlands, he handled the violence during the London riots and secured the highest levels of public confidence in the country when Surrey Police’s Chief Constable. After leading the UK’s Counter-Terrorism policing operations nationally as Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations, Sir Mark received his Knighthood in Her Majesty The Queen’s Birthday Honours for his “exceptional contribution to national security at a time of unprecedented threat and personally providing reassuring national leadership through the attacks of 2017”.  

Sir Mark is a passionate advocate of helping public sector organisations embrace technology-led innovations. Since 2018 he has focused on pioneering routes to help policing and security agencies unlock their full potential. As Executive Chair of two emerging tech companies, he brought together new methodologies with expertise, to help in security contexts and also improve crisis preparedness in the commercial sector.  

Sir Mark is a Distinguished Fellow of the Royal United Services Institute; on the National Preparedness Commission; on the Academic Advisory Board of the Policy Exchange Liveable London Unit; on the Global Advisory Board of the Institute for Global Innovation at the University of Birmingham; and on the Commission for Smart Government. Sir Mark co-authored ‘Operating with Impunity’ with the Commission for Countering Extremism, making recommendations to Government for a step change in the law’s ability to tackle modern extremism. Earlier this year, prior to rejoining policing, Sir Mark published his debut novel ‘The Sleep of Reason’, which he co-wrote with Former Head of Counter Terrorism, David Derbyshire. 

Max Hill KC is the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). He was appointed by the Attorney General and took up post on 1 November 2018.  

Max qualified as a barrister in 1987 and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 2008. While at the bar, Max both defended and prosecuted in complex cases including homicides, violent crime, serious sexual offences, terrorism, high value fraud and corporate crime. He was instructed in many of the most significant and high-profile murder trials in recent years, including the second set of trials concerning the killing of Damilola Taylor, and the London bombings of 2005.   

From March 2017 to October 2018, Max was the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. As the Independent Reviewer, he compiled reports including an investigative review of the use of terrorism legislation following the Westminster Bridge attacks.  

Max was also the Leader of the South Eastern Circuit from 2014 to 2016, Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association from 2011 to 2012, and Chairman of the Kalisher Trust from 2014 to 2018.  Until his appointment as DPP, Max was Head of Red Lion Chambers.  

Rosa Dean was called to the bar in 1993 and practiced mainly criminal law on the Midlands and South Eastern Circuits.  In 2006 she was appointed as a Deputy District Judge (crime) and in 2011 became a Circuit Judge siting at Isleworth and Woodgreen Crown Court. In 2017 she became the resident judge at Harrow.  In 2022 she was appointed a senior circuit judge and the resident judge at Snaresbrook Crown Court. Snaresbrook has 20 courts and is the largest Crown Court in England and Wales.  

Rosa was appointed to the Sentencing Council in April 2018. 

Barry Hughes is from Liverpool and studied law at Sheffield University before joining the newly formed Crown Prosecution Service in 1986 as a Crown Prosecutor in North London. In 1996 Barry was promoted to the post of Assistant Chief Crown Prosecutor for London and then Chief Crown Prosecutor for Cheshire in 1999.  

In 2004 he moved to become Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Direct and set up the CPS service which provides charging advice outside normal working hours across England and Wales.  

In 2007 Barry became Chief Crown Prosecutor for Avon and Somerset and was subsequently appointed as Chief Crown Prosecutor for the South-West of England.  In June 2017, Barry took over as the Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS Cymru-Wales. 

Since 2013, Barry has been the National Multi-Agency Lead for the Transforming Summary Justice initiative that has been implemented across England and Wales.  He continues to Chair the  
Multi-Agency Group, and works across Government Departments to keep attention focused upon this important initiative. 

Barry came to CPS London North as Chief Crown Prosecutor in February 2020 and his responsibilities extend across London with the Pan-London Homicide unit. He is the Area lead for Hate Crime and is involved in the development of innovative technological transformation within the Criminal Justice System, such as digital jury bundles, at a national level.  

Peter Rook has been Vice Chair of the Parole Board since 2020; Formerly he was Chairman of the Criminal Bar Association ( 2002-2003), head of chambers at Red Lion Chambers ( 2002-2005), an Old Bailey judge (2005-2017) and a judicial coroner (2017-2019.)

He has been writing and lecturing on sexual offences for the last 40 years. He is co-author of the legal textbook ‘Rook & Ward on Sexual offences: Law and Practice’

(Sweet & Maxwell) and is currently working on the 7th edition which will be published in 2024.

Whilst a QC, he appeared in many appeals involving sexual offences including R v A (no 2), the House of Lords case dealing with a complainant’s sexual history. As an Old Bailey judge for 12 years he tried many cases involving grave sexual offences such as the night stalker in 2011 and the Oxford grooming case in 2013. He also ran the course for the Judicial college training judges who are authorized to try sexual offences and sat in the Court of Appeal between 2008 and 2016.

He regularly lectures on “sexual offences” to judges, barristers, solicitors, police and medical practitioners. He has lectured on “vulnerable witnesses” in Trier, Edinburgh, Jersey and at the International Criminal Court at the Hague. He regularly delivers presentations on judicial ethics at Wüstrau. He has given lectures on “sexual offences” to the ENA in Paris. In December 2022 he ran a course with HH Judge Angela Rafferty KC for the senior judiciary in Northern Ireland on questioning the vulnerable.

From 2013 until 2016 he chaired a working party for the Advocacy Training Council (now the College of Advocacy) which has devised a course for ALL advocates undertaking cases involving the vulnerable. Gillian Jones KC and Angela Rafferty KC (now HH Judge Angela Rafferty KC) were the course directors.

Since he retired from the Old Bailey at the end of March 2017, he continues to teach and lecture in respect of questioning the vulnerable/ sexual offences and, he sits as a judge on a part-time basis most recently trying a General Practitioner for sexual offending in gross breach of trust at the Old Bailey in late 2022.

In 2018/2019 he chaired a working party on behalf of the legal charity JUSTICE. This was looking at best practice in respect of sexual offences prosecutions in England, Wales and Scotland. The report which contained 57 recommendations was launched on 10th June 2019.

He was a member of Dame Vera Baird KC’s advisory group during her period as Victim’s Commissioner.

Dr Amy Kirby joined the Institute for Crime and Justice Policy Research (ICPR), at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2010. During her time at ICPR Dr Kirby has worked on projects focusing on the criminal courts, victimisation, sentencing, procedural justice and legitimacy. This includes a 20-month Economic and Social Research Council funded study about victims', witnesses' and defendants' experiences of the Crown Court; a research review of the components of effective advocacy in youth proceedings, commissioned by the Bar Standards Board in association with Ilex Professional Standards, and a study of the meaning of participation in courts and tribunals, funded by the Nuffield Foundation. She was awarded a PhD from the University of Surrey in 2019 for her study of lay participants’ perceptions of the legitimacy of the criminal courts, funded by the Economic & Social Research Council.

Dr Kirby’s research has been published in monographs and academic journals, alongside policy-oriented outputs in collaboration with organisations such as Victim Support, Clinks and the Criminal Justice Alliance. She currently teaches on undergraduate and post-graduate taught programmes in the Department of Criminology at Birkbeck and is co-investigator on a Nuffield funded study of Lived Experiences in the Courts in collaboration with ICPR and Revolving Doors.

Kira has over seven years’ experience of working in the Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) sector in frontline, leadership and strategic roles. Currently working as the Senior Criminal Justice Manager at Standing Together, Kira manages the Mentor Court Project, which aims to reinvigorate the Specialist Domestic Abuse Court (SDAC) model nationally. Kira is a qualified IDVA, and her frontline advocacy experience ensures that victims and survivors remain at the centre of her work.  

Julian V. Roberts, K.C. (Hon.) is Professor (Emeritus) of Criminology, University of Oxford and Executive Director of the Sentencing Academy.

Julian was a member of the Sentencing Council of  England and Wales (2010-2019) and an advisor to the American Law Institute Model Penal Code Sentencing project. He was the 2021 recipient of the American Society of Criminology Sellin-Glueck Award for comparative scholarship.

His books include Pleading Guilty (Hart Law, 2023). Sentencing and Artificial Intelligence (edited, with J. Ryberg, Oxford University Press, 2022); Victims and Adversarial Criminal Justice (with A. Bottoms, Willan, 2009); Criminal Justice: A Short Introduction (Oxford University Press,2015); Sentencing Guidelines (2013, Oxford: Oxford University Press); and Punishing Persistent Offenders (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Kilvinder is the regional probation director for London Probation. She has a long and varied career in the criminal justice spanning over 30 years with focus on partnerships, safeguarding and community safety. 

As the London Director, Kilvinder has led on delivering the policy change programmes including the unification of the probation service, bringing it back to public ownership.  Kilvinder takes every opportunity to promote the complexities of the probation craft; engaging defendants to provide balanced assessments of risk and need, and developing respective plans to support change and reduce victims by working in partnership. During her practice career, Kilvinder worked as a victim liaison officer for victims of serious crime and later ran the Victim Liaison Service. 

Simon Jolin-Barrette studied at Université de Sherbrooke, where he completed a Bachelor of Laws, a graduate degree in common law and international law, and a Master of Laws. He then completed a Master’s degree in public administration at École nationale d’administration publique.

Before entering politics, he practised public law for Ville de Montréal. In 2014, while pursuing his doctoral studies in law at Université de Montréal, he was elected MNA for the riding of Borduas with Coalition Avenir Québec.  

In 2018, Coalition Avenir Québec won the general election and formed the new government. Mr. Jolin-Barrette served as Minister of Immigration, Francization and Integration until June 2020, when he was appointed Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Québec, the position he holds today. He vowed to improve access to justice and rebuild victims’ trust in the justice system.  

This commitment underlies his proposal of major changes in terms of support for victims. He introduced Bill 84, An Act to assist persons who are victims of criminal offences and to facilitate their recovery. The reform had been awaited for over 30 years and was adopted unanimously by the National Assembly. 

Bill 92, An Act to create a court specialized in sexual violence and domestic violence, was also introduced by Minister Jolin-Barrette and adopted unanimously by the National Assembly. Pilot specialized courts have now been deployed in 10 judicial districts of Québec in order to better support victims throughout their journey, before, during and even after the judicial process.  

Another piece of legislation initiated by the Minister is Bill 2, An Act respecting family law reform with regard to filiation and amending the Civil Code in relation to personality rights and civil status, the first part of a major reform of family law.  

Minister Jolin-Barrette chairs the Legislation Committee, whose mandate is to provide Cabinet with advice and recommendations on the legal implications of all bills that the government intends to introduce in the National Assembly.  

As soon as he took office as Government House Leader in 2018, he introduced a parliamentary reform project to modernize the practices of the National Assembly. Some of his proposals are informed by Westminster Hall.  

Until 2022, Mr. Jolin-Barrette also served as Minister of the French Language. In that capacity, he introduced Bill 96, An Act respecting French, the official and common language of Québec, a robust reform designed to protect and promote the status of French in the province. From 2018 to 2022, he was also Minister Responsible for Laicity and Parliamentary Reform as well as Minister Responsible for the Montérégie Region.