Jade's Law comes into force this December, two and a half years after Royal Assent. Survivors of attempted murder get none of its protection, because ministers turned down the fix their own Victims' Commissioner proposed.
Estimated reading time: 7 minutes
In short. From 18 December 2026, a parent convicted of murdering their child's other parent automatically loses parental responsibility the moment they are sentenced [1]. A parent convicted of trying to kill that other parent, and failing, keeps it: section 10A of the Children Act 1989, inserted by section 18 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, names only "the murder or... manslaughter" of the other parent as the trigger [2]. The gap is not an oversight. The Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales backed a Lords amendment to add "or attempted murder" to the Act; the government declined to take it forward, on the grounds that "the surviving parent can apply to the family courts" [8], the exact process the government's own 2023 announcement said Jade's Law existed to spare bereaved families [4]. Three documented mistakes: four stars.
On 18 December 2026, more than two and a half years after Jade's Law received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024 [3], a parent convicted of murdering their child's other parent will automatically lose parental responsibility the moment they are sentenced. A parent convicted of trying to kill that other parent, and failing, keeps it.
What switches on in December
The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Commencement No. 12 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026, signed by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State Jake Richards on 22 October 2026, bring section 18 of the Act into force: the twelfth commencement order made under it [1]. Section 18 inserts two new sections into the Children Act 1989. Section 10A applies "where... a parent who has parental responsibility for the child ('the offender') is convicted of the murder or, in the circumstances mentioned in subsection (2), manslaughter of the other parent" [2]. Once that condition is met, "the Crown Court must make a prohibited steps order when sentencing the offender" [2]: the offender may take "no step of any kind which could be taken by a parent in meeting their parental responsibility for a child... without the consent of the High Court or the family court" [2]. For a murder conviction, that duty has no escape clause beyond two narrow technical exceptions. Only where the conviction is manslaughter can the Crown Court decline, and only "if... it appears... that it would not be in the interests of justice to do so" [2]. Section 10B then requires the local authority to apply for a mandatory review within days, and preserves the order if the conviction is later quashed on appeal [2].
The law is named for Jade Ward, murdered by her former partner in 2021. Her killer retained parental responsibility over their four children, including the right to be consulted on their schooling, health and foreign travel, and the government's 2023 announcement of the change said this was precisely the harm it was designed to end [4].
The clock that did not start at Royal Assent
The duty does not reach backwards. Regulation 3 of this month's order states plainly: "The amendments made by section 18 of the 2024 Act apply only in relation to offences committed on or after 18th December 2026" [1]. Every family already living with a convicted killer's parental responsibility, including the kind of case that prompted the law, gets none of it. The 2023 announcement said the point was to spare bereaved families "the current process of applying to restrict parental responsibility through the family court, reducing the burden on them at a challenging time" [4]. For every case that predates 18 December 2026, that process remains the only process there is.
The word the Act does not contain
Section 10A's duty applies only where the offender "is convicted of the murder or... manslaughter of the other parent" [2]. Attempted murder appears nowhere in it, and that was not an oversight nobody raised. During the passage of the Victims and Courts Bill, Lord Meston tabled an amendment, backed by the Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, Claire Waxman OBE, to insert four words into the Act: after "murder," add "or attempted murder" [7]. The Commissioner's briefing is direct about who is left out: survivors of attempted murder "must still battle offenders in court to protect their children," facing a perpetrator who can "request access to the child's school reports" and withhold consent for a change of school, a house move or a holiday abroad [7]. The government did not take the amendment forward [8].
The reason given is the reason the law exists
The Commissioner's own office records the government's stated ground for declining: "the surviving parent can apply to the family courts to have parental rights suspended" [8]. That is the exact process the government told the public, in October 2023, Jade's Law existed to remove, so that bereaved families would "no longer have to go through the current process of applying to restrict parental responsibility through the family court" [4]. The government accepted that applying to family court is a burden worth legislating away for one group of victims, and offered it as the answer for another group asking for the same protection, in the same bill.
The same bill, two new categories, one refusal
The refusal was not a limit of the legal mechanism. The Victims and Courts Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 [6], within six months of this commencement order, built two further automatic prohibited-steps-order duties using the identical device. Section 3 inserts a new section 10C into the Children Act 1989, requiring the Crown Court to restrict parental responsibility whenever it sentences a person to four or more years, or a life sentence, for a serious sexual offence against a child [5]. Section 4 does the same where a child was conceived through the offender's rape. Both sit in the Act marked "Prospective," awaiting their own commencement regulations [5], exactly as section 18 of the 2024 Act once did. Parliament was willing to extend this mechanism twice in the same bill that rejected extending it a third time, to survivors of attempted murder.
Credit where due
The provision now commencing is not loosely drafted. Section 10A's duty is close to absolute for a murder conviction, section 10B builds in a mandatory local-authority review within days, and the order survives a later acquittal being overturned on appeal rather than lapsing automatically [2]. The Victims and Courts Act's two new categories are a genuine expansion of protection, not window dressing. And the transitional provision, unwelcome as its effect is, is stated in plain language on the face of the regulations rather than buried in a schedule [1].
The claims, tested
| The document's own words | What the record shows | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| "The amendments made by section 18 of the 2024 Act apply only in relation to offences committed on or after 18th December 2026" [1] | The 2023 announcement said the point of the law was to spare bereaved families "the current process of applying to restrict parental responsibility through the family court" [4] | The protection the law was built to deliver does not reach the families whose cases prompted it |
| Section 10A applies where the offender "is convicted of the murder or... manslaughter of the other parent" [2] | A Lords amendment to insert "or attempted murder," backed by the Victims' Commissioner, was tabled and not taken forward [7] | A scope limit Parliament was explicitly asked to fix, and chose not to |
| The government's stated reason for declining: "the surviving parent can apply to the family courts to have parental rights suspended" [8] | The government's own 2023 announcement said Jade's Law exists so families "no longer have to go through" that same family court process [4] | The reason given for leaving a gap is the reason the policy exists to close it, for a different group of victims |
| The Victims and Courts Act 2026 creates an identical prohibited-steps-order duty for two further offender categories [5] | The same bill that created those two new duties rejected a materially identical extension to attempted murder [7] | Not a limit of the legal mechanism; a choice about which victims qualify |
Verdict
Four stars, from three documented mistakes. The mechanism this order finally switches on is tightly drafted and, for the families it covers, a real improvement on the family court route it replaces. But it covers less than its own backers asked for, and less than the government's own reasoning says it should. A policy built on the premise that bereaved families should not have to beg a family court for protection from their children's other parent now tells one category of victim, survivors who lived through an attempt on their own life, to do exactly that.
The star score counts three documented mistakes: the commencement order applies only to offences committed on or after 18 December 2026, so no family already living with a convicted killer's parental responsibility, including the kind of case that prompted the law, gains any protection from it; section 10A's trigger is "murder or... manslaughter" only, and a Lords amendment backed by the Victims' Commissioner to add "or attempted murder" was tabled and not taken forward by government; and the government's stated reason for declining that amendment, that survivors can apply to the family courts, is the identical burden its own 2023 announcement said Jade's Law exists to remove, in a bill that simultaneously created the same automatic protection for two other victim categories. Three falls in the 1 to 3 band: four stars; the bands are on the ratings page. This piece makes no finding of bad faith; the finding is that the government's own stated justification for the law does not explain its own decision to withhold the same protection from a comparable group of victims. Checked directly against the commencement order's full text, section 18 of the Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 as enacted, the Victims and Courts Act 2026, the Ministry of Justice's 2023 announcement and the Victims' Commissioner's published briefing and website, all fetched 28 October 2026.
Sources
- The Victims and Prisoners Act 2024 (Commencement No. 12 and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2026, legislation.gov.uk, made 22 October 2026
- Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, section 18 (as enacted), legislation.gov.uk
- Victims and Prisoners Act 2024, introductory text, legislation.gov.uk, Royal Assent 24 May 2024
- 'Jade's Law' to be introduced to better protect children, Ministry of Justice, published 3 October 2023
- Victims and Courts Act 2026, section 3, legislation.gov.uk
- Victims and Courts Act 2026, introductory text, legislation.gov.uk, Royal Assent 29 April 2026
- Victims and Courts Bill: the Victims' Commissioner briefing, extending Jade's Law to attempted murder, Office of the Victims' Commissioner, February 2026
- Victims and Courts Bill: drive for victim-focused reform continues, Victims' Commissioner for England and Wales, published 18 February 2026