Victim compensation scheme: long-overdue wholesale review abandoned by government – Victims’ Commissioner disappointed

On Wednesday 9 April, the government published its response to two Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme consultations – addressing issues identified during the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA).

The response also outlined future intentions to improve the Scheme, including a decision not to respond to the main 2020 consultation, carried out to undertake a wide-ranging review of the scheme. According to the response, the government doesn’t intend to consider the scheme in isolation and there’s no longer any need for a wholesale review due to a number of changes and improvements in recent years.

The Victims’ Commissioner, regularly in contact with victims who experience issues with the scheme, doesn’t share this view.

The scheme will have seen some changes and improvements in the past six years but a steady stream of victims continue to contact the Victims’ Commissioner to this day, facing the same kind of issues other victims experienced five to six years ago when Baroness Newlove first published her report, Compensation without traumatisation – raising a number of issues with the scheme.

Commenting on the government’s response, the Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, said:

I am disappointed by this response. Many of the problems I identified in 2019 persist, and victims continue to face significant barriers when navigating the Scheme. For this reason, a commitment to fully examining how the scheme operates is still needed – and whether it actually fulfils its stated remit: to acknowledge the harm suffered by victims of violent crime who have no other access to compensation, and to provide redress as part of a just and compassionate response.

I am also concerned that, simply by citing compensation figures, the response appears to suggest that the Scheme is working well. There is a world of difference between this view and what I regularly hear from victims. Their accounts, too often, suggest a system that seems to obstruct rather than support. Undoubtedly, progress has been made since I first raised these issues six years ago but so much more needs to be done.

The 2022 and 2023 consultations – important but limited in scope – were never intended to replace a wholesale review of the Scheme or address the full range of issues. The 2020 review was, but it has been set aside.

While the government’s arguments for not amending the Scheme’s scope and time limits for only some victims may hold water, I am concerned by the decision not to reform the unspent convictions rule. Under the current scheme, those with a criminal conviction who have been exploited are not eligible for compensation. That cannot be right.

ENDS