The Witness Service (also known as Citizens Advice Witness Service) is a service in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

for witnesses who have to give evidence in criminal courts. The Witness Service offers practical and emotional support and is a free service. The service is funded by the UK government's Ministry of Justice, which also publishes general advice about testifying in court

History

The Witness Service was first set up by

Victim Support Victim Support is an independent charity in England and Wales that provides specialist practical and emotional support to victims and witnesses of crime. Activities ;Support for victims of crime: Trained volunteers and employees offer free and ...

in the 1990s after research by the charity showed witnesses needed help to testify in court. It lobbied government to fund the service, winning funding from the Home Office in 1991 and launching the service in 1994. By 1996 there was a witness service in every Crown Court in England and Wales. Victim Support successfully ran the service for around twenty years before the

Ministry of Justice A Ministry of Justice is a common type of government department that serves as a justice ministry. Lists of current ministries of justice Named "Ministry" * Ministry of Justice (Abkhazia) * Ministry of Justice (Afghanistan) * Ministry of Just ...

awarded the £24m fixed-term contract to run the service to

Citizens Advice Citizens AdviceCitizens Advice is the operating name of The National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux which is the umbrella charity for a wider network of local advice centres. The abbreviation CitA is sometimes used to refer to this nation ...

in 2014. At the time, the Law Society Gazette reported that Citizens Advice Service did not get any additional funding to run the service. The

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

set up and ran a specialist service specifically for child witnesses, which Victim Support developed further in a pilot study with funding from the Ministry of Justice.

References

Citizens Advice British victims of crime Trials in the United Kingdom {{law-stub