Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200-.

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A decision made (01/05/2009) regarding: Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200-.

Decision Reference: MD-HA-2009-0049
Decision Summary Title :	CICS (Amend No 6)		Date of Decision Summary:	12 March 2009
Decision Summary Author:	Executive Officer Home Affairs		Decision Summary: Public or Exempt?	Public
Type of Report: Oral or Written?	Written		Person Giving Oral Report:	n/a
Written Report Title :	Report - CICS (Amendment No 6)		Date of Written Report:	2009 03 12
Written Report Author:	Secretary, CICB		Written Report : Public or Exempt?	Public
Subject: Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200-
Decision(s): The Minister approved the draft Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200- for lodging on 5th May 2009.
Reason(s) for Decision: The Criminal Injuries Compensation Board has made recommendations for a number of amendments to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200-. These include increasing the number of members of the Board; increasing the lower limit for the award to £1,500; the use of Jersey-specific data in the calculation of loss of earnings; prescribing time limits for the claiming of awards by applicants.
Resource Implications: There are no additional financial or manpower implications arising from this amendment, other than in respect of the proposed requirement that awards should be claimed within 6 months whereby an amount representing current awards older than 6 months will be written-back to the budget of the CICS.
Action required: The Executive Officer, Home Affairs to arrange for the amendment to be lodged on 5th May 2009 for debate on 16th June 2009.
Signature:		Position: Minister for Home Affairs
Date Signed:		Date of Decision (If different from Date Signed):

Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (Amendment No. 6) 200-.

PM/71.09

DRAFT CRIMINAL INJURIES COMPENSATION SCHEME (AMENDMENT NO. 6) 200-

Report

1. Introduction

1.1 The current Jersey Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (R&O 8143, as subsequently amended) came into force on 1st May 1991 as a result of an Act of the States of 4th December 1990 “establishing a Scheme to provide compensation for victims of crimes of violence to replace the Scheme set out in the Act of the States dated 12th May 1970” (R&O 5350). Article 10(a) of the 1990 Act sets out the scope of the Scheme, the essence of which is as follows –

the Board may make ex gratia payments of compensation in any case where the applicant or, in the case of an application by a spouse or dependant, the deceased –

(i) sustained, in the Island or on a Jersey ship, personal injury directly attributable to a crime of violence (including arson or poisoning) or the apprehension or attempted apprehension of an offender or a suspected offender or to the prevention or attempted prevention of an offence or to the giving of help to a police officer who is engaged in any such activity, or

(ii) sustained personal injury directly attributable to a crime of violence (including arson or poisoning) in respect of which a court in the Island has jurisdiction by virtue of section 686 or 687 of the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 or such enactments as from time to time replace them.

1.2 The then Defence Committee, conscious of the limitations of the 1970 Scheme (which provided for compensation only in cases where members of the public came voluntarily to the aid of another member of the public or the police and were injured in so doing), widened the scope of the Scheme to include crimes of violence generally. The 1990 Scheme came into force on 1st May 1991 in respect of injuries suffered on or after that date. Applications in respect of injuries suffered before 1st May 1991 are dealt with under the terms of the rather more restrictive 1970 Scheme.

1.3 A number of amendments have been made to the 1990 Scheme, which are reflected in the current version of the guide to the Scheme (entitled “Victims of Crimes of Violence” - see Appendix).

2. Proposed further amendments

2.1 The Board, although generally satisfied with the workings of the 1990 Scheme, as amended, has recommended to the Minister for Home Affairs a number of amendments which it believes are desirable in order to improve the way in which the Scheme operates.

2.2 The Board presently comprises 10 members: 6 of whom are “advocates or solicitors of the Royal Court of not less than 5 years’ standing” - and 4 ‘lay’ members. It would be of practical assistance to the Board for the total number of members to be increased by 2; not only to enable the workload to be more evenly spread, but also to facilitate the situation which is created when a member retires or resigns. In such circumstances the departing member is encouraged to complete his or her current workload prior to their departure but, as this can take some considerable time, this means that it is likely that their successor will not be able to be appointed for a prolonged period. Rather than hand over the ongoing caseload to the new and relatively inexperienced member, were the new member to be appointed promptly (before the departure of the departing member) this would enable them to commence work on ‘new’ applications, whilst the person they had replaced would be able to finish off their ‘old’ cases. The increase in membership of the Board from 10 to 12 will not result in any increased expenditure to the Scheme since members are paid by the hour; thus the existing level of expenditure would simply be spread among a greater number of members.

2.3 The amount of any compensation to be awarded to an applicant is assessed on the basis of “Common Law” damages, subject always to the other provisions of the Scheme. However, in order to maximize the limited resources available to the Board a lower limit is imposed, which means that when the injuries sustained are of a comparatively minor nature then no award is made. The current minimum (set in 1998) is £750. An award in that figure could relate to injuries such as cuts, bruises or sprains and a few days loss of earnings. It is proposed to double the figure to £1,500.

2.4 In its calculation of loss of earnings, the Scheme currently provides that “the rate of net loss earnings or earning capacity to be taken into account shall not exceed one and a half times the gross average industrial earnings at the date of assessment (as published by the United Kingdom Department of Employment Gazette and as adjusted as considered appropriate by the Board).” As this ‘Gazette’ is no longer published, rather than use United Kingdom data on gross average industrial earnings the Board believes that it would be preferable instead to use Jersey figures as even the use of the U.K. Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) renders the Jersey Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme out of kilter with the equivalent U.K. Scheme. The Statistics Unit compiles earnings data in Jersey every year - collected by way of a survey of the private sector; and a census of the public sector - in order to determine the Jersey Average Earnings Index. The mean (‘average’) earnings of full-time equivalent (F.T.E.) employees is published regularly and the Board considers that this would be an improvement upon using U.K. figures. This amendment to the Scheme addresses the use of this Jersey-specific data.

2.5 Following a States Treasury Internal Audit of the Scheme undertaken as part of the 2008 Internal Audit Plan, whilst satisfied that the Scheme was being administered in an efficient manner, it was recommended that a time limit for accepting awards should be specified, failing which the awards should be written back as income. It had been noted that the Scheme did not prescribe such a time limit within which awards should be claimed by applicants, and that as at June 2008, awards amounting to over £22,000 were lying unclaimed. As some of these had being lying unclaimed since 1998, it was considered that steps should be taken to rectify such a situation for the future. Consequently, it is proposed that awards should be accepted within 6 months of their notification to applicants unless exceptional circumstances exist.

2.6 It is suggested that references to Committees are changed to references to appropriate Ministers, and also that minor changes be made for the sake of consistency within the original Act.

3. Financial and manpower implications

3.1 There are no additional financial or manpower implications arising from this amendment, other than in respect of the proposed requirement that awards should be claimed within 6 months whereby an amount representing current awards older than 6 months will be written-back to the budget of the CICS.

4. Recommendation

4.1 The Minister for Home Affairs commends the draft amendment No. 6 to the States