{"value":{"id":1504792,"askingMemberId":4277,"askingMember":null,"house":"Commons","memberHasInterest":false,"dateTabled":"2022-09-05T00:00:00","dateForAnswer":"2022-09-08T00:00:00","uin":"47553","questionText":"To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether his Department has plans to allow historical sexual abuse victims to have a character witness during trial.","answeringBodyId":54,"answeringBodyName":"Ministry of Justice","isWithdrawn":false,"isNamedDay":true,"groupedQuestions":[],"answerIsHolding":false,"answerIsCorrection":false,"answeringMemberId":4668,"answeringMember":null,"correctingMemberId":null,"correctingMember":null,"dateAnswered":"2022-09-13T00:00:00","answerText":"<p>The Department does not currently have any plans to allow historical sexual abuse victims to have a character witness during trial. In criminal trials, including those involving accusations of historical sexual abuse, rules of evidence do not permit the admission of evidence of the good character of a prosecution witness in order to bolster their credibility, even when they are the complainant.</p>","originalAnswerText":"","comparableAnswerText":"","dateAnswerCorrected":null,"dateHoldingAnswer":null,"attachmentCount":0,"heading":"Sexual Offences: Trials","attachments":[],"groupedQuestionsDates":[]},"links":[{"rel":"self","href":"/Questions/1504792","method":"GET"}]}