The final two pieces in this series look at how criminals can be managed in Wales after independence. While the best way to deal with crime is to prevent it from happening in the first place, that’s not going to stop everyone. This piece will look at criminal rehabilitation and non-custodial sentencing options like fines, community sentencing and probation.
As things stand
The responsibility for overseeing criminal compensation lies with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority – based in Glasgow. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) runs in England, Scotland and Wales. The scheme in Northern Ireland is run separately.
Anyone who’s been a victim of a violent crime, has lost a relative to a violent crime, witnessed a violent crime being inflicted on a relative or was otherwise left out of pocket is eligible for criminal injuries compensation. This usually applies solely to offences committed in the UK, but there are reciprocal agreements with some other countries where offences committed abroad can be compensated for.
The time limit is 2 years except in cases involving historic child sex abuse or there was a good reason why a claim couldn’t be made earlier (i.e. mental or physical disability).
The CICA will decide on the award of compensation, how much it would be and whether there should be any reductions. The maximum award to any individual claimant is £500,000. Appeals relating to criminal injuries decisions are heard by a tribunal (Part XII).
There are no detailed figures for criminal compensation awards in Wales alone. The CICA’s latest annual report states that in 2020-21, there were awards totalling £135.5million in EnglandandWales12; a proportional Wales-based share of that would be up to £7million.
Cardiff University research suggests the figure would have been around £7million in 2017-1813, but it’s been as high as £21million in 2011-12 (the year before large scale changes came into effect).
Criminal injuries compensation & independence
The CICA is described as “one of the most generous” schemes of its kind in the world. The obvious thing to do would be to maintain a system as close to the existing one as possible.
You would assume any Welsh criminal injuries scheme would be managed either directly by the Welsh equivalent of the Ministry of Justice, a Welsh Government-sponsored agency (though that might come with additional costs around administration etc.) or even managed by a lead local authority (much like Rent Smart Wales).
The last reform of the system in England, Wales and Scotland came in 2020. Some other ideas for future reform raised by the Victim’s Commissioner14 and others include:
- Allowing the criminal injuries agency access to police records to ensure victims aren’t asked multiple times about/being forced to relive what happened.
- Further simplify the tariffs used to calculate compensation claims.
- Victims of crime with unspent criminal convictions shouldn’t be excluded from making compensation claims (but this doesn’t necessarily have to cover all unspent convictions).
- The time limits for making a claim could be changed.
- Most criminal injuries claims involving solicitors are usually made on a “no win, no fee” basis, but caps on the percentage of any award the solicitor can claim could be brought in to ensure as much money as possible goes to the victim.
12: Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (July 2021). Annual Report 2020-21, p82. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1004785/CICA_Annual_Report_and_Accounts_2020-21.pdf
13: Guto Ifan, Cardiff University, (May 2019). Public Spending on the Justice System in Wales, p6. Available at: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/1699217/Legal-Economy-report-FINAL.pdf
14: Victim’s Commissioner, (8th July 2020). Compensation Scheme: Victims’ Commissioner’s proposal for reform. Available at: https://victimscommissioner.org.uk/news/compensation-scheme-victims-commissioners-proposal-for-reform/
