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The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme makes financial awards to individuals who have been injured as a result of violent crime. The scheme makes awards, based on a tariff system reflecting the type of injury, ranging from £1,000 to £250,000. It also makes payments to cover loss of earnings and various expenses, which can increase the total award to a maximum of £500,000. The scheme is administered by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (the Authority), a Non-Departmental Public Body of the Ministry of Justice (the Ministry). Appeals against the Authority's decisions are heard by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Appeals Panel (the Panel) which is part of the Tribunals Service, an Executive Agency of the Ministry. Our predecessors examined this subject in 2000.
Between 2000 and 2006, performance in dealing with claims deteriorated due to poor management within the Authority, combined with a lack of oversight by the sponsoring department. Despite the number of applications falling by 23%, the average time taken to resolve a case rose from 12 to 17 months; the number of cases resolved per staff member fell from 179 to 125; and the total cost to the taxpayer of administering the scheme increased by £6.1 million in real terms. Unit costs have also risen. The Authority and Panel have not focused adequately on the users of the Scheme. Its performance targets have not been sufficiently stretching and there have been weak incentives to meet them.
The Ministry of Justice now has oversight of the scheme, yet the low priority given to it belies its importance to the Ministry's objective of putting victims at the heart of the criminal justice system. The Ministry did not set rigorous targets for either the Authority or the Panel nor did it hold them accountable for their performance.
Victims of violent crime are not made sufficiently aware of the existence of the scheme or its requirements. Only about one third of victims of violent crime surveyed in 2006 were aware of the scheme and only 5% applied. Some demographic groups are more likely to apply than others. Over half of applicants use representatives, although it is not necessary to do so, and over 20% pay solicitors, even though Victim Support offers a free service. The Scheme application form is long and complex, and almost a fifth of applicants found it difficult to complete. The Authority's call centre is currently outsourced but performance is poor; 15% of calls are not answered, and half of those that are answered had to be referred back to the Authority. The Authority plans to improve the application form and bring the call centre in-house, incorporating a new applicant support service.
The Authority requires information from third parties such as police forces, GPs and hospitals to resolve cases but it has failed to work sufficiently with them to encourage faster response times. The Authority's casework processes have become increasingly repetitive and bureaucratic. The Code of Practice for Victims of Crime specifies that the Police should respond to initial requests for information in 30 days. The Ministry has, however, not managed to get all police forces to comply, and only 15 police forces met this timescale for half of the requests they receive.
In the seven years since our predecessors examined this subject, only five of our sixteen recommendations have been met in full. The Ministry now plans to put in place accountability and performance management frameworks at all of its arms' length bodies, and to appoint an official to monitor performance against the recommendations of the National Audit Office and the Committee.
On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General,[1] we examined the Ministry, Authority and the Tribunals Service on the reasons for the deterioration in performance since we last reported and the steps that they had taken, and planned to take, to improve performance in the future.
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