According to the commencement regulations published on legislation.gov.uk, the first commencement order under the Victims and Courts Act 2026 brings into force, from 13 August 2026, the parts of section 7 and Schedule 2 needed to activate new sections 44M and 44O within the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. The measure is narrow in scope, but it is the first operational step under an Act that received Royal Assent on 30 April 2026 and included a distinct victims package. (gov.uk)
Section 44M creates a discretionary disclosure route. Where a provider of probation services receives a request from a victim, or from a person acting for that victim, it may disclose information by using the existing statutory pathways if it considers that the victim would face physical or psychological harm were the information not provided. That means the new section is not a general entitlement to any material held about an offender; it is a risk-based gateway attached to information categories already set out elsewhere in Part 3A of the 2004 Act. (legislation.gov.uk)
The drafting is deliberately cross-referential. The table in section 44M points back to the existing provisions covering prisoners serving custodial sentences, hospital orders with and without restriction orders, hospital directions with limitation directions, and transfer directions with or without restriction directions. The Ministry of Justice’s explanatory notes say the wider scheme is designed so probation is usually the entry point for victims, but in some hospital cases information is supplied by hospital managers or, where tribunal proceedings are engaged, by the First-tier Tribunal or the Mental Health Review Tribunal for Wales. (legislation.gov.uk)
For implementation, that matters because the new power reaches beyond standard release cases. Providers of probation services will need a route for receiving section 44M requests, checking whether the underlying statutory condition is met, and obtaining information from clinicians, hospital managers or tribunal processes where the case sits within the mental health pathway. For victims, the immediate change is a clearer access point: the request goes to probation even where another public body may still need to supply part of the information chain. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Section 44O is much shorter but still important. It states that nothing in this Part limits any disclosure power a provider of probation services has outside the Part, which the explanatory notes describe as a clarification that the new gateway does not narrow other existing powers. The practical effect is to avoid an argument that section 44M is the only route available whenever probation considers sharing information with a victim. (legislation.gov.uk)
The commencement order is also tightly drawn. On the face of the regulations, the provisions brought into force are confined to those connected with the insertion of sections 44M and 44O, the supporting interpretation machinery and the response to requests made under the new gateway. The effect is staged implementation: the disclosure mechanism starts first, while the wider victims provisions in the Act are not all switched on by this instrument. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
This fits the policy objective set out earlier in the Bill papers and impact assessment. The Ministry of Justice said one purpose of the legislation was to update the routes by which victims can obtain information about an offender’s release, and the impact assessment said the aim was to improve confidence, communication and transparency for victims within the criminal justice system. This first commencement order does not complete that programme, but it does bring one of its most technical and operationally significant pieces into effect. (gov.uk)