THE very first brief I was ever given when I started my (short) career as a barrister was to prosecute a shoplifter.

This was before the days of the Crown Prosecution Service. Each police force made their own arrangements for prosecutions.

Some had dedicated solicitors departments to handle their cases; others used private firms of solicitors.

The police force for whom I was prosecuting was one such. They briefed our chambers.

No one else was available. So young Straw – one day in – got the brief. I prepared as though the charge was murder.

But the one thing I could not do in those days was talk to the prosecution witnesses. As it happened it didn't much matter in this case. The main witnesses were police officers, and the defendant was found guilty anyway.

But in other cases I prosecuted it did matter. Defence solicitors and counsel could talk to the defence witnesses – the defendants themselves, and typically their mates providing an alibi of some sort, or claiming where it was a charge of violence, that the victim had started it.

But whatever the circumstances, you had to steer well clear of 'your' witnesses if you were prosecuting.

There was however a need to do so, not to school them in the answers, but to provide re-assurance to them about what could happen in the adversarial and potentially hostile environment of the court.

I did not think this was fair. It wasn't. It was symptomatic of a criminal justice system which forgot about the victim, who is often also the principal witness for the prosecution.

I'm glad to say that this has also changed now, along with so much else in relation to the way witnesses and victims are treated by the criminal justice system (one of the big changes is that crime itself is down, as figures last week showed again).

The Lawrence Inquiry which I established as Home Secretary led to big changes in the way in which the police supported the bereaved victims of homicide. Today there are dedicated police family liaison officers, who in my experience of talking to such victims do a first class job. And grant to organisations like Victims' Support has trebled.

Now we’re making further progress.

Yesterday I announced details of the first ever National Victims’ Service.

The aim is to build on what we’ve done to ensure that – eventually – the victims of all crime receive a consistent level of support.

One of the findings of the Victims’ Champion, Sara Payne, after she spent months talking to victims, was that how individuals react to their experiences of crime can be very different.

Some people are made in a way which allows them to deal with the effects of crime whilst others are not. So this new service will make sure there is support available for everyone.