Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009

My Lords, I thank the Lord President for presenting these schemes to the House this evening. The passage of both the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009 and the Draft of Alterations to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2002 should rightly receive swift and smooth passage through this House, so in support I intend to be brief. Referring to the alteration to the criminal injuries scheme initially laid down in 2002, it is both important and timely that when previously undetected injuries are sustained our legislative provisions are able to provide just as adequately as they do for more conventional offences. Acknowledging that until now compensation has been available in the event of a victim sustaining a criminal injury that was not included in the 2002 tariff, it is important that our system for administering such a scheme is able fully to process an individual application. As this alteration will allow just that, I offer it my full support. Turning to the Northern Ireland Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2009, which not only amends the rates of compensation available across the injuries outlined in the original tariff but includes the additional 121 injuries that would be provided for if the scheme is amended by the aforementioned alterations, I shall make the following observation. Without anticipating any opposition in your Lordships’ House, may I say that the tenor of some of the responses received to the consultation missed the point? While criminal injuries compensation and the tariffs generally are higher in Northern Ireland than those in place for the English and Welsh schemes for reasons of historical legacy, it is not appropriate to argue that such a disparity should be maintained. Although all noble Lords have been advised through the briefing papers that victims of violent crime in Northern Ireland are three times more likely to apply for criminal injury compensation, the scheme should not be approached from the belief that either compensation satisfactorily deals with the pain and suffering caused by a criminal injury or that compensation is what victims expect. It simply ameliorates the unnecessary and unwarranted effects they have suffered. Therefore, an effective reduction in line with the scheme that exists in England should not be feared. I support the amendment.