Helen's Law passes final hurdle in the Commons
It's named after Helen McCourt, whose murderer Ian Simms was released from prison last month despite never revealing where her remains are
A Bill denying parole to killers who refuse to disclose the location of bodies has passed through the Commons.
The Prisoners (Disclosure of Information About Victims) Bill, dubbed Helen's Law, passed its remaining stages in the Commons on Tuesday.
The legislation is named after Helen McCourt, whose murderer Ian Simms was released from prison last month despite never revealing where her remains are.
The Bill will also apply to offenders who do not reveal the identity of child victims in indecent images.
The legislation places a statutory obligation on the Parole Board to take into account specific offenders' non-disclosure of certain information when making a decision about their release from prison.
It applies to prisoners serving a sentence for murder or manslaughter or for taking or making an indecent photograph of a child.
Justice Secretary Robert Buckland said: To all those families affected by despicable crimes like these, I pay warm and heartfelt tribute.
I hope that they will be able to take some comfort from knowing that their dedication provides some hope from other families affected by the cruel and heartless actions of those who refuse to disclose vital information.
On behalf of all those families and victims, I thank you.''
Simms was jailed for life in 1989 after killing Helen as she walked home from work in Billinge, Merseyside, but was released in February without disclosing the location of her body.
Helen's mother Marie McCourt has been campaigning for the change in the law following her daughter's death.
Ms McCourt's MP Conor McGinn (St Helens North) said the Bill will alleviate a great deal of pain and suffering that is felt by victims''.
The Bill also responds to the case of Vanessa George, a nursery worker who was convicted of multiple counts of sexual abuse and taking and distributing indecent images of children and refused to name the victims.
Mr Buckland said: It is imperative that we protect the public from potentially dangerous offenders, and those offenders that do not disclose the whereabouts of victims' remains or the identity of the victims in indecent images must be thoroughly assessed and the non-disclosure taken into account.
We can all agree the importance of stipulating in statute that appalling circumstances such as those addressed in this Bill must be fully taken into account by the Parole Board when making any decisions on the release of such an offender.''
Shadow justice minister Bambos Charalambous said the never-ending turmoil of not having a body to lay to rest is one of the cruellest forms of emotional torture''.
Mr Charalambous said: Whilst this Bill will not assist us in finding the whereabouts of Helen McCourt's body or identifying the whereabouts of the children abused by Vanessa George, the measures in this Bill will hopefully provide added pressure to prisoners to think again when refusing to disclose information about their victims.''
The Bill passed without division.