§ Mr. Harry GreenwayTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the number of victims compensated for criminal injury during the past year; what was the total and average paid to them in that year and five, 10 and 15 years ago; and if he will make a statement on proposals to alter the terms of compensation for victims of criminal injury.
§ Mr. MacleanDetails of the new arrangements for compensating blameless victims of violent crime were published in a White Paper on 15 December 1993—Cm. 2434. The new scheme is based on a tariff of awards and starts on 1 April. Victims will find the new scheme simpler and quicker than the one it supersedes. It will help restrain the spiralling costs of the present arrangements and make future expenditure more predictable and controllable.
Annex A to the White Paper gave full historical details of awards made under the scheme. The information is extracted from that table.
Financial year Number of awards made Total compensation paid £ (million) Average award (£) 1992–93 36,638 152.5 4,162 1987–88 20,991 52.0 2,479 1982–83 19,733 29.4 1,492 1977–78 14,052 10.1 719
§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was(a) the number of claims, (b) the total sum paid out, (c) the average amount per case and (d) the maximum, minimum and average time taken to deal with claims for criminal injuries compensation for the last available year.
§ Mr. MacleanIn the year ended 31 March 1993 the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board received 65,977 new applications and paid out a total of £152.217 million. The average award was £4,162.
The board does not maintain statistics on the time taken to deal with cases in the form requested. However, paragraph 6 of the 29th annual report of the board—Cm 2421—a copy of which is held in the Library of the House, provides some information about the time taken to resolve cases.
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