Crime victims must get new legal rights to challenge parole and police decisions, a new all party group of MPs and Lords will demand today.

For the first time, they say victims should have statutory rights to compensation if they are kept in the dark or denied a voice in key decisions about the perpetrator of the crime against them by the police, courts or prisons.

It would be policed by the Victims' Commissioner Baroness Newlove who would be able to order victims be paid compensation if their legal rights to be informed about the progress of the offender through criminal justice system were breached.

The group says victims currently only have an unenforceable code whereas offenders have statutory rights such as to parole.

It is demanding that the Government introduce legislation by next year that would "redress this imbalance between the perpetrator and victim."