Victims of Crime - Improved Compensation for Serious Injuries

The Government has announced that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) is to be revamped, offering increased compensation to those who suffer serious injury as a result of crime. The way the current scheme works has been heavily criticised for being bureaucratic and giving very poor levels of compensation for injuries received as the result of crime compared with the compensation normally awarded for comparable injuries in civil cases. The CICS is currently operated using an ‘injuries tariff’, based on over 400 injuries, providing 25 levels of compensation between £1,000 and £250,000, with an overall limit of £500,000.

Victims of less serious crimes, such as minor broken bones, burns and so on will see their monetary compensation withdrawn, but victims of criminal injuries generally will be offered support which is ‘timely, practical and local’. Compensation orders made against criminals are to be enforced more strictly so that criminals are made to pay for the consequences of their crimes.