§ 50 and 51. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) upon what basis he plans, in his proposed scheme for compensating the victims of crimes of violence, to assess the compensation payable on the one hand to the dependants of a murdered breadwinner and on the other hand to a maimed victim;
(2) if he will, for England and Wales and for Scotland separately for the latest convenient period, state in relation to the compensating of victims of crimes of violence the estimated annual and capital cost of National Insurance payments now made and the estimated annual and capital cost of compensation similar to the Industrial Injuries Scheme.
§ 56. Mr. Owenasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if, having now further studied the case for compensating victims of crime and violence, he will make a statement on Government policy in this matter.
§ Mr. R. A. ButlerI am studying a proposal put forward by the late Miss Margery Fry that compensation should be paid by the State to the victims of crimes of violence on a scale similar to that under the Industrial Injuries Scheme and should take the form of payments analogous to the injury, disablement and death benefits at present paid under that Scheme. On the basis of the benefits payable in 1956 and the level of crimes of violence in that year it has been estimated that if payments were made under a funded scheme the annual cost would be about £200,000. The National Insurance payments would, on the 1956 basis, amount to about £50,000 a year. These figures relate to England and Wales only; I regret I have no corresponding figures for Scotland.
Miss Fry's scheme and the difficult complex of problems involved in the suggestion that the State should pay compensation to the victims of crimes of violence are under consideration, but I am not yet in a position to make a statement of Government policy.