Compensation for criminal injuries

Francesca Cooney; Greg Oxley

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme overview

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) is a state scheme to compensate people who have been physically or mentally injured after being a victim of a violent crime, or people whose loved ones have died as a result of a crime of violence. The scheme covers England, Scotland and Wales. It is administered by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), which is an Executive Agency sponsored by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

What payments are available?

The scheme guidance states that compensation can be awarded for the following claims:

mental or physical injury following a crime of violence;
sexual or physical abuse;
loss of earnings – where a person has no or limited capacity to work as the direct result of a criminal injury;
special expenses payments – these cover certain costs a person may have incurred as a direct result of an incident; and
a fatality caused by a crime of violence including bereavement payments, payments for loss of parental services and financial dependency; and funeral payments.

The level of compensation payable ranges between £1,000 and £250,000

depending on the level of injury. Details are included in Annex E: Tariff of Injuries (PDF).

Eligibility

The eligibility criteria for the CICS is set out in the scheme guidance. It includes:

that a person must be a direct victim of a crime of violence,
that the incident must have taken place in England, Scotland, Wales or another ‘relevant place’,
that the incident must have been reported to the police,
that the person must meet the nationality and residency criteria,
that the person must co-operate in bringing the assailant to justice, and
that an unspent criminal conviction may affect whether a person is entitled to compensation.

Full details of the eligibility criteria is set out in the scheme guidance.

Time limits for applying

The guidance states that people “must apply as soon as it is reasonably practicable” for them to do so and that “this should normally not be later than two years after it occurred” for adults. In some cases, the time limit can be extended “due to exceptional circumstances”.

If a person was under 18 at the time of the incident, an application must be received:

by their 20th birthday, if the incident was reported to the police before their 18th birthday
within two years of the first report to the police, if the incident was reported to the police on or after their 18th birthday

Number of applications

The CICA Annual Reports and Accounts 2023-24 state that it received 42,000 applications in 2023-24, which was a 13% increase on the 36,686 applications it received in 2022-23. This is the first time that the number of applications has exceeded 40,000 since 2012.

Of the 42,000 applications, 37,119 were finalised in 2023-24. Statistics are not published on the number of successful applications.

In 2023-24, CICA paid out £165m in compensation to victims of violent crime. This was 4.7% lower than the £173 that was paid out in 2022-23.

Concerns about the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme

Concerns have been raised about the operation of the CICS.

In 2019, the Victims’ Commissioner highlighted a range of concerns about the CICS, including that:

the application process re-traumatises victims with victims required to repeat details of the crime numerous times,
there is a lack of awareness amongst victims about the CICS,
the two-year rule time limit for applications does not reflect the reality of child sexual abuse, and
the legal complexity of the scheme means that nearly 40% of applicants use a third party to submit their applications.

Concerns have also raised about the unspent conviction rule, with charities such as Unlock and the Criminal Justice Alliance arguing that it penalises victims whose convictions may be linked to the trauma they have experienced. (PDF)

The Survivors Trust has raised concerns about the scope of sexual abuse offences that qualify for compensation, and has called for this to be expanded to include “non-contact forms of child sexual abuse including online.”

The Victims’ Commissioner’s Review into Criminal Injuries Compensation

In January 2019, the then Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Baroness Newlove, published a review into criminal injuries compensation.

The Victims’ Commissioner concluded that:

… whilst compensation awards were well received by victims, the process of making their claim was often traumatic. Victims, lawyers and support services told us about delays, uncertainty about next steps and poor communication. To many, fairly or unfairly, the Scheme seemed calculated to frustrate and alienate.

The Victims’ Commissioner made a number of recommendations, including that the Ministry of Justice should “examine the Scheme with a view to making it simpler and accessible to victims wishing to apply on their own behalf, reducing the reliance upon legal representatives.”

The Victims’ Commissioner also stated that there should be “a greater scope for discretion when considering claims by victims who have unspent convictions” and that more support and assistance should be provided to victims.

MoJ Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme Review 2020

In July 2020, the MoJ announced that it would review the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in order to make it “simpler and more transparent.”

A public consultation was published (PDF) that sought views on the scheme’s approach to consent, the same roof rule (which blocked victims of violent crime from receiving compensation if the attacker was a family member they were living with at the time of the incident until the law was changed in 1979), whether language should be simplified and whether the number of bands for compensation should be reduced.

The consultation also asked for views on reviewing the way brain injury is described and the proposal to legislate for a compensation scheme for victims of terrorism at home and abroad and for victims of homicide abroad.

The consultation closed in October 2020. The Conservative government did not formally respond to the consultation.

Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was launched in 2015 to examine the extent to which “state and non-state institutions failed in their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation” and to make recommendations for reform. The recommendations for reform included ways for improving the CICS.

Interim Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

In April 2018, the Interim Report of the IICSA was published. The report made three recommendations relating to the CICS. In December 2018, the government published its responses to the interim report.

The first recommendation was that the MoJ should revise the CICS rules so that awards are not automatically rejected in circumstances where an applicant’s criminal convictions are likely to be linked to their child sexual abuse.

The Conservative government responded by stating that the Victims Strategy would consider how the CICS could better serve victims of violent crime, including child sexual abuse.

The IICSA also recommended that the CICS should be revised to remove barriers faced by victims and survivors of child sexual abuse. In response, CICA responded by training specialist caseworkers and issuing guidelines and targeted training for all staff dealing with applications on sexual abuse.

The third recommendation from the IICSA was that CICA rules should be revised so that all applicants who were refused compensation under the same roof rule should be entitled to reapply for compensation and have their claim approved.

In 2019, the Conservative government changed the law so that victims whose applications for compensation had previously been refused under the same roof rule were able to re-apply if they met the other eligibility criteria. Further details are available in the Library briefing Criminal Injuries Compensation for victims of child abuse.

The Report of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse

The IICSA published its final report in October 2022. The report included concerns about the CICS, including that the two-year limit for making a claim was inadequate for victims and survivors of child sexual abuse and that the CICS continued focus on ‘crimes of violence’ overlooks the fact that online sexual abuse can occur without physical contact.

The IICSA recommended that the CICS should be amended to:

include others forms of child sexual abuse, including online-facilitated sexual abuse,
amend the rule on unspent convictions so that applications with unspent convictions are not automatically excluded where offences are likely to be linked to their experience of sexual abuse as a child, and
increase the time limit for child sexual abuse applications so that applicants have seven years to apply from either the date the offence was reported, or from the age of 18, if the offence was reported when the victim was a child.

Case of RN v CICA July 2023

The case of RN v CICA in July 2023 marked a significant legal development regarding the CICS, as the Court of Appeal ruled that victims of non-touching sexual abuse are eligible for compensation under the CICS.

RN was a victim of serious online sexual grooming and abuse who suffered life-changing mental injuries as a result of the abuse.

RN’s application to the CICS had been rejected on the basis that RN had not been physically injured and that he was not placed in fear of immediate harm.

This decision was upheld by the First Tier and Upper Tribunals, but the Court of Appeal ruled that RN was subject to a crime of violence under paragraph 2(1) (C) of the CICS, and that victims of non-contact abuse, like RN, should be eligible for compensation.

MoJ Criminal Injuries Compensation Review

In response to the recommendations made by the IICSA, the MoJ held two supplementary consultations on its Criminal Injuries Compensation Review.

Criminal Injuries Compensation Review Supplementary consultation 2022

The MoJ published its Criminal Injuries Compensation Review Supplementary consultation 2022 in June 2022. The consultation invited comments on potential changes to the CICS so-called ‘unspent convictions’ rule. The consultation closed on 5 August 2022.

Criminal Injuries Compensation Review Supplementary consultation 2023

The MoJ published its Criminal Injuries Compensation Review Supplementary consultation 2023 in July 2023.The consultation invited comments on potential changes to the scope and time limits of the CICS. The consultation closed in September 2023.

The Conservative government did not formally respond to either consultation before the dissolution of Parliament ahead of the 2024 general election.

Labour government action

In April 2025, the Labour government formally responded to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Review Supplementary consultation.

The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Victims and Violence against Women and Girls, Alex Davies-Jones, announced that the Labour government would not be taking forward the IICSA’s recommendations for the CICS.

Ms Davies-Jones stated that she had “not come to this decision lightly” and that she understood the concerns and calls for changes to the CICS.

Ms Davies-Jones stated that her decision was based on “what is right for the Scheme as a whole, considering all the victims of crime it supports”:

A core principle of the Scheme is its universality. It ensures all victims can equally access the Scheme, regardless of the nature of the violent crime they were injured by. I consider this fundamental principle of fairness to be crucial to the Scheme’s role.

Expanding the Scheme’s scope and making changes to its time limits and unspent convictions rule as the Inquiry recommends would undermine this principle given that these changes would only apply to victims of child sexual abuse. That could, in my view, be detrimental to other deserving victims of crime.

Ms Davies-Jones concluded by stating that “the clear message to me is that we need change” and that she would be considering how the government can “best provide the support that victims need and deserve.”

Stakeholders’ views

The majority of people who responded to the government’s consultations as part of its Criminal Injuries Compensation Review were in favour of changes to the CICS. 92% of people who responded the government’s 2022 consultation were in favour of the unspent convictions rule being reviewed, whilst 83% of people who responded to the government’s 2023 consultation were in favour of the scope of the CICS being reviewed.

The Victims’ Commissioner, Baroness Newlove, has expressed disappointment at the government’s decision not to implement the IICSA’s recommendations, stating that the current system “re-traumatises” victims and poses “significant barriers” to those navigating the process […] which suggests a system that seems to obstruct rather than support”.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition has stated that the CICS “is not fit for purpose” and has called on the government to “to implement the Independent Inquiry into CSA recommendations to include child sexual abuse, online-facilitated sexual abuse, grooming, stalking and coercive control within the CICA scheme.”

Kim Harrison, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL), who represented survivors at the IICSA, said that “the government has effectively dumped the recommendations on its ‘too hard’ pile, thereby brushing away victims and survivors as an inconvenience.”

Alan Collins, a child abuse solicitor, said that the government’s decision to not take forward the IICSA’s recommendations was “illogical, unjust and absurd” and that “it’s common sense that compensation rules should be changed.”

Useful links

Recent debates and parliamentary questions about compensation for criminal injuries are available on the Parliamentary database