The plans are part of a five year strategy to boost public confidence in legal institutions and to increase the number of offenders brought to justice.

Lord Falconer wants courts to keep witnesses seperate from dependants and introduce more video links.

Will the proposed changes make a difference to witnesses? Will this redress the balance between crinimals and victims of crime? Does more need to be done? Send us your views using the form.

The following comments reflect the balance of opinion we have received so far:

A good idea, but first we need to have enough police officers available to find the criminals in the first place. After I was verbally abused and threatened on a train, the transport police said they couldn't prioritise finding my assailants because someone had been mugged on another train and they didn't have enough people to cover both crimes. The local police said it 'wasn't in their jurisdiction', so my crime was not investigated. Two years on and I still can't get on a train. Yet if they'd found the men who threatened me, I would certainly have testified against them in court - but some victims just don't get the chance.
Linda Collins, York, UK

Let's hope so, but I fear they are too little too late. Here in Merseyside all the hard work of the police is being undermined by the system that favours the criminal. The fear of intimidation has resulted in the majority of people arrested going free. The naive, liberal establishment have left their mark, whilst they live in their safe neighbourhoods and dream of Utopia
J Karran, Liverpool, UK

These wonderful 'new' reforms would have an impact if they hadn't already been in existence for some years. Children have been giving evidence over video-links since the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and adults have been afforded the same protection since the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999. So the timing of this announcement gives rise to a degree of cynicism.
Rob Griffiths, Bournemouth, UK

All these new reforms and initiatives! How come they weren't enacted years ago? I think that this has less to do with making life better for the long suffering British public, and more to do with the upcoming general election.
Phil, Birmingham, UK

This is good news but the real problem is the sentences passed down to these criminals. Half the time they are back out of prison in six months. Victims and witnesses know this and are sometime reluctant to give evidence against their attacker. Surely pre-emptive measures are better than reactive ones.
DM, UK

Witnesses and victims are not made to feel like the innocent people in the current procedure Candice, UK

It's about time; hundreds of people are the victims of crimes and injustice. Witnesses and victims are not made to feel like the innocent people in the current procedure. They should be allowed to give evidence and statements without feeling intimidated by the court. There are so many people out there who will not give vital evidence due to the current system because they know too well that they may not be able to face it. Victims of rape and domestic violence will not come forward and they will not give evidence against their attackers. In the UK there are thousands of silent victims and the court system owes them their justice.
Candice, UK

Witness reform is a step in the right direction to help the victim/witness protection principle. However if this effort is combined with the previously failed motif of this government to replace House of Lords with the Supreme Court, whose supremacy is only over England and Wales courts, then we need to be careful in giving our assent to this bill. Judiciary bashing seems to be a normal precept of the labour government over ages. This time they simply have taken it a step too far.
Prabhat, UK

Like everything else, I have little or no confidence in anything administered in this country. It's just fancy talk and not a lot of substance. Let's look at the punishments handed out if we really want confidence to be restored.
Rick White, Manchester, UK

Good idea. There is no reason why preserving the right to justice cannot be compatible with taking care of victims, and vice versa. Let's aim for the best of both worlds.
Katherine, London, UK

The real problem is the appalling state of the police investigations Jenny, UKe

As an advocate in the courts, I regularly see witnesses scared to face the defendants against whom they are giving evidence. Anything that would protect these people will help. But the real problem is the appalling state of the police investigations of offences which then lead to cases having to be dropped by the prosecution or thrown out by the bench. Even basic questioning or investigative techniques are omitted as young officers are told to do the bare minimum by their senior officers leading to failure to make the case. This brings the whole criminal justice system into disrepute.
Jenny, UK

To Jenny, UK - I see the other side of the coin i.e. the CPS who are incompetent and unwilling to take cases to court - even when they are prepared to plead guilty - so don't go blaming the police for everything.
Miki Hewitt, Gosport, Hampshire

Separating witnesses from defendants and using video links will not make a jot of difference to witnesses. If a witness is prepared to stand in court and give evidence they will do so without fear. If there is any element of fear in a witness, video links, evidence from behind curtains or another planet will not dispel that fear. If a defendant is of the mind they will always find a way to intimidate a witness regardless of any plans Lord Falconer could devise.
Alan Glenister, Bushey, Herts UK

Well at least the Lord Chancellor's considering something other than the criminal. If witnesses' addresses are not identified as can happen by mistake it's a good move - but the sentences have to go up in order to really complete the picture.
Flynn, London, UK