Criminal Justice (Victims of Crime) Act 2017
Amendment of section 5 of Criminal Justice Act 1993
31. The Act of 1993 is amended in section 5—
(a) by the substitution of the following for subsection (1):
“(1) This section applies to an offence where a natural person in respect of whom the offence has been committed, has suffered harm, including physical, mental or emotional harm, or economic loss, which was directly caused by that offence.”,
and
(b) in subsection (6)—
(i) by the substitution of the following definition for the definition of “family member”:
“ ‘family member’, in relation to a person in respect of whom an offence is committed, means—
(a) a spouse, civil partner or cohabitant of the person,
(b) a child or step-child of the person,
(c) a parent or grandparent of the person,
(d) a brother, sister, half brother or half sister of the person,
(e) a grandchild of the person,
(f) an aunt, uncle, nephew or niece of the person, and
(g) any other person—
(i) who is or, where the person is deceased, was dependent on the person, or
(ii) who a court considers has or, where the person is deceased, had a sufficiently close connection with that person as to warrant his or her being treated as a family member;”,
and
(ii) by the insertion of the following definitions:
“ ‘Act of 2010’ means the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010;
‘civil partner’ means a person in a civil partnership or legal relationship to which section 3 of the Act of 2010 applies;
‘cohabitant’ means a cohabitant within the meaning of section 172(1) of the Act of 2010;”.