§ Mr. Christopher Priceasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will set out in the Official Report those criteria he employs to decide, in cases of miscarriage of justice, whether to refer the matter to an assessor for an ex gratia payment; and what general guidelines he gives to the assessor about levels of compensation.
§ Mr. WhitelawMy policy and that of successive Home Secretaries has been to give sympathetic consideration to an application for an ex gratia payment from public funds to a person who has been granted a free pardon or whose conviction has been quashed after his case has been referred to the Court of Appeal under section 17 of the Criminal Appeal Act 1968. Exceptionally, payments have been authorised in other cases where the circumstances were compelling and there has been some misconduct or negligence on the part of some public authority. I do not give any guidelines to the assessor, who is independent and applies principles analagous to those governing the assessment of damages for civil wrongs.