Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009

My Lords, I beg to move that the draft Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009, which was laid before this House on 29 January 2009 be considered. I also beg to move that the Draft of Alterations to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002, a copy of which was laid before this House on 17 December 2008, should also be considered. I welcome this opportunity to put these proposals before the House today. I will deal first with the Draft of Alterations to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002. The Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002 was established by the Criminal Injuries Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 2002. The Scheme, which came into force on 1 May 2002, is important in providing compensation, at taxpayers’ expense, to the blameless victims of crimes of violence. The scheme reflects the Government’s commitment to supporting people who are the innocent victims of violent crime and to ensuring that they receive some form of financial recognition of their injuries from the community by way of criminal injuries compensation. Compensation payments are based on a tariff of awards for criminal injuries of comparable severity. A tariff scheme sets out the amount that may be awarded for certain specified criminal injuries, covered by injury descriptors in the tariff scheme. Some 280 such injuries are listed in the tariff of awards, attracting compensation ranging from level 1 at £1,000 to level 29 at £280,000. In the more serious cases compensation can also be awarded for loss of earnings, loss of earning capacity and the costs of special care. In administering the scheme, the Compensation Agency in Northern Ireland received 4,922 claims for the period 2007-08 and paid a total of £13.8 million in criminal injuries compensation. The staff of the agency have provided the people of Northern Ireland with a sterling service, often in very difficult circumstances. It is only fitting that I register the appreciation of this House for the work that they do on behalf of victims of violent crime. Since the 2002 scheme came into operation, and in accordance with its provisions, the Compensation Agency has, from time-to-time, had to make payments to victims for injuries not included on the original list of injury descriptions. Since 2002, some 500 separate claims of this type have been processed and payments of around £4.3 million made. Noble Lords will be relieved to know that those who have suffered these injuries have had their claims met in full. However, under the terms of the tariff scheme, the claims cannot be officially closed until the new injury descriptors developed to address these injuries are formally added to the 2002 scheme. The 2002 order makes provision for the Secretary of State to add new injury descriptors, with corresponding levels of new awards. Such alterations to the scheme have to be approved by the affirmative resolution procedure. It is to seek that approval that I have brought this measure before the House this evening. The new descriptors reflect consultation and agreement between the Compensation Agency and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel for Northern Ireland. The agency has assessed the respective values in each case with regard to the current Northern Ireland rates for equivalent injuries. These descriptors can be added to the tariff by replacing the existing list of injury descriptors with a new list which includes the new descriptors and by updating the index. The Compensation Agency, with the agreement of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel for Northern Ireland, has recommended an additional 74 new descriptors, shown in the copy of the tariff included with the Explanatory Memorandum. That version of the tariff is identical to the augmented tariff for which approval is being sought, but it helpfully highlights those injuries which we are seeking to add to the list. I move on to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009, a draft of which was laid before this House on 28 January 2009. The Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002, known as the tariff scheme, provides compensation to victims of violence in Northern Ireland who have been physically and/or mentally injured, or who are a dependant or relative of a deceased victim. The governing legislation is the Criminal Injuries Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 2002. Arrangements in Northern Ireland for criminal injuries compensation have, since the 1960s, been broadly similar to those in the rest of the United Kingdom. In 1996, a tariff scheme based on fixed payments for specific injuries was introduced in Great Britain, and in 2002, after a review led by Sir Kenneth Bloomfield in Northern Ireland, a tariff-based scheme was also introduced in respect of all levels of injury. The current arrangements for criminal injuries in Northern Ireland are therefore already similar to those in Great Britain, with compensation for criminal injuries set through a tariff scheme. However, as a legacy of the past 30 years, the individual value of tariff points in the Northern Ireland 2002 scheme is different from, and generally higher than, that of the scheme in Great Britain. Aside from these differences in tariff rates, the two schemes are similar in structure and concept. A characteristic of criminal injuries compensation in Northern Ireland has always been the comparatively high take-up rates and higher levels of compensation. Expenditure on tariff payments in Northern Ireland in 2006-07 was running at a rate almost three times that of Great Britain per capita. There remains a greater propensity to apply for compensation in Northern Ireland, even though rates of violent crime per head of population in Northern Ireland are now lower than those of England and Wales. I move on to the reason for change. In November 2007, the Government announced a review of criminal injuries arrangements as part of their agenda for normalising life in Northern Ireland. On 6 March 2008, we announced the publication of a consultation document proposing a new scheme under the Criminal Injuries Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 2002. The scheme does not require primary legislation but, given that this issue will be the responsibility of the Northern Ireland Assembly when policing and justice powers are devolved, we wanted to ensure that a 60-day consultation exercise was conducted to take account of the views of the people of Northern Ireland. The proposed 2009 tariff scheme brings Northern Ireland’s scheme closer to the Great Britain criminal injuries compensation scheme of 2008. It removes a number of anomalies which we are convinced are no longer justifiable. For example, how can we pay different amounts of criminal injury compensation in different parts of the United Kingdom for the same injury? In addition, why should someone who suffers an injury in Belfast receive more compensation than someone with the same injury in Bristol or Brixton? We propose this change at a time in Northern Ireland when the security and political situations have significantly improved and the need for special measures has, in the main, ended. The proposed scheme is not a precise copy of the Great Britain scheme and limited differences have been retained, but the introduction of a new criminal injuries scheme will bring about a greater uniformity of entitlement to criminal injuries compensation across the United Kingdom. However, a small number of differences between the two schemes remain. The new Northern Ireland scheme retains the position of setting no cap on compensation that can be paid in any one case. In contrast, the GB scheme sets a cap of £500,000 on the maximum payment paid under the tariff for loss of earnings and special expenses. Another difference is in the area of multiple injuries. Arrangements in Northern Ireland currently take greater account of the overall effect of multiple injuries than those in Great Britain. In both schemes, awards are made on the basis of adding the tariff value of the first injury, 30 per cent of the tariff for the second and 15 per cent for the third injury when calculating an award. In Great Britain, payments for subsequent injuries are not made, whereas in Northern Ireland there will be a payment of 10 per cent of the tariff rate for each further injury. We are also retaining the use of trusts for minor applicants. In Northern Ireland, when an application is from a minor, under the age of 18, the award is held in trust until the applicant becomes 18 years old. No equivalent provision exists in Great Britain. This arrangement ensures that payments made before an applicant turns 18 are safeguarded from misuse either by the claimant or by any other family member. The new scheme does not completely replicate the descriptors in the Great Britain scheme; there is one difference. The 2009 scheme does not include a descriptor for temporary mental anxiety, which in Great Britain allows for one-off payments of £1,000 for mental anxiety lasting more than six weeks. Previous experience in Great Britain regarding this particular injury has been mixed, and the Northern Ireland priority has been to focus resources on the more serious injuries. In Great Britain, under the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, the Criminal Injuries Appeal Panel ceased to exist and appeals are now made to the First-tier Tribunal. The relevant legislation covering criminal injury compensation in Northern Ireland remains the Criminal Injuries Compensation (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 and existing arrangements for making appeals through the appeals panel remain unchanged under the proposed scheme. The Northern Ireland Office consultation on the proposed Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009 was launched on 6 March and concluded on 4 June 2008. The responses to the consultation are summarised on the Northern Ireland Office website. There were a total of 11 responses, which, on a general level, provided a range of views from those who agreed that compensation levels should be the same throughout the UK to those who took the opposite view and argued against any reduction in criminal injury compensation levels in Northern Ireland. All the issues raised by respondents had been previously raised and considered as part of the development of the proposed policy change. Having considered all the responses from the consultation exercise, no amendments were made to the proposed scheme. I am pleased to bring forward these proposals. The Government consider all the award levels and additions to the 2002 scheme to be appropriate. The measure is limited and modest, but welcome. Separately, a new criminal injuries compensation scheme is an opportunity to bring the Northern Ireland scheme into closer alignment with the Great Britain scheme and so to bring about a greater uniformity of entitlement to criminal injuries compensation across the United Kingdom. As Northern Ireland moves closer to an ever more politically stable society, improvements in security and politics continue to evolve to produce a place where special arrangements for compensation for criminal injuries are no longer needed. This new scheme is a significant advance towards that place. I commend the Draft of Alterations to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002 and the draft Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009 to the House.