§ Mr. ToddTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (1) what plans he has to review the rights to compensation of victims where the offence took place before 1 October 1979 and the offender and victim lived together as members of the same family; [46578]
(2) how many claims under the criminal injuries compensation scheme have been rejected because the offence took place before 1 October 1979 and the victim and the offender lived together as members of the same family. [46579]
§ Mr. MichaelUnder the tariff-based scheme, effective for all claims received on or after 1 April 1996, 190 claims had been refused by 31 March 1998 by reason of their exclusion from the scope of that scheme under paragraph 7(b). Precise data for the identical exclusion applied in the former scheme based on common law damages are not available. However, I understand from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board that between 1,000 and 2,000 claims in this category would have been refused in the period 1 April 1980 to 31 March 1996. The number of victims who have never made any application in recognition of the exclusion is unquantifiable.
The question of allowing claims arising from intra-family violence before 1 October 1979 has been considered on a number of occasions over the years. 444W Change has been rejected on grounds of cost, and because it would represent a departure from the general principle that changes in the law, rules and procedures are not normally made retrospective. We believe those arguments remain compelling, and have no plans to review further this aspect of the compensation scheme.