HC Deb 23 January 1986 vol 90 c440
11. Mr. Ashley

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will invite the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board to reconsider the amount of compensation paid to rape victims.

Mr. Mellor

The board is responsible for reviewing the general level of awards in recognition of changes in the levels of civil damages, and carries out such review s when it considers them necessary. It would not be right for my right hon. Friend to intervene in that process.

Mr. Ashley

My question does not ask the Home Secretary to intervene in the reviews. It asks him to invite the board to reconsider the amounts paid to rape victims. Will the Minister please answer the question? While he is at it, will he consider whether it is reasonable to invite the board to take account of the long-term psychological damage which is imposed by rape and to seek information from organisations working with rape victims?

Mr. Mellor

The right hon. Gentleman asks Ministers to intervene, which would be unprecedented in the 20 years that the board has been in operation. In January 1984 the board assembled a panel of 41 judges and senior lawyers who were invited to give an opinion on what should be the starting figure—I stress the starting figure—for rape awards, upon which additional awards could be made in particularly bad cases. It was only after consideration by that panel, including several women lawyers, that the present level of awards was set. It would not be right for the Home Secretary to intervene in this quasi-judicial exercise.

Mr. Rowe

Does my hon. Friend agree that this is an important but tiny strand in the whole vexed question of compensation payments made in a variety of different ways for a variety of different reasons? Does he also agree that there are serious dangers in following too readily the path followed in America towards high compensation payments in other areas, which simply attract litigation of all kinds?

Mr. Mellor

The purpose of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board is to make awards on behalf of the community to people who have been damaged by crimes of violence. I am happy to say that under this Government the level of awards made last year had risen to £35 million from £13 million in the last year of the Labour Government.