CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION SCHEME (Hansard, 6 November 1986)

The Earl of Caithness

As announced in the White PaperCriminal Justice, Plans for legislation, we intend to put criminal injuries compensation on to a statutory basis; the report of the interdepartmental working party which has reviewed the scheme to this end is being published today. The Government broadly accept the working party's recommendations—in particular that compensation given to the innocent victims of violent crime should continue to be based on civil damages, subject to certain well recognised exceptions—and propose to introduce legislation on this basis.

The Government have resolved to make available in future years considerable extra funds to enable current and future applications to be dealt with. The aim is to 1250WA reduce the present backlog of work by about 5,000 cases a year. An additional £114 million will be made available over the period 1987–88 to 1989–90. For 1987–88 the increase is £33 million which represents an increase of 65 per cent. over the previously planned provision. This allows for the necessary additional staff as well as increased numbers of payments.

In the course of settling upon the financial provision to be made available, we have considered whether it is necessary to revise the lower limit for compensation (at present, £500 in cases of family violence and £400 in other cases). The limit needs to be revised periodically in order to allow resources to be concentrated on the more seriously injured. My right honourable friends the Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Scotland have decided that, when an inquiry is sustained on or after 7th November 1986, compensation will be payable under the scheme only if the injury is one for which compensation of at least £550 will be awarded. The new limit will apply also to injuries sustained before 7th November if the application is received by the Criminal Injuries Board after 6th January 1987.

As a further step towards ensuring that the new resources are devoted to the maximum possible extent to the needs of victims, we are considering with the board whether further changes need to be made to the current scheme to enable cases to be dealt with more quickly and economically while not affecting the compensation to which the victim is entitled.