PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Criminal Injuries Compensation: Children (1 October 2019)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many victims of child sexual abuse have had an award by the Criminal Injuries and Compensation Scheme withheld because (a) of an unspent conviction, (b) the time limit for application was exceeded, (c) the victim was deemed to have consented and (d) the abuse did not involve physical contact.

Asked by:
Sarah Champion (Labour)

The number of victims of sexual abuse who were under 18 at the time of the incident(s) giving rise to their injury and have had an award withheld because of (a) unspent convictions or (b) the time limit being exceeded is provided in the following table: Year Total number of resolved child sexual abuse cases Award withheld due to unspent convictions Award withheld as time limit exceeded 2015-16 476 26 82 2016-17 2588 46 113 2017-18 5619 140 411 2018-19 4972 111 52 The information provided relates to resolved applications which were submitted from 1 April 2015 onwards, this being the start of the first financial year after the application form for criminal injuries compensation was adapted to capture the incident type. Where an application was rejected for (a) unspent convictions or (b) exceeding the time limit this may not have been the sole reason for rejection. Information about whether the victim was deemed to have consented and whether the abuse did not involve physical contact could only be obtained through a manual search of case records at disproportionate cost.

Answered by:
Wendy Morton (Conservative)
7 October 2019