PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (19 February 2024)

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to page 139 of his Department’s publication entitled Ministry of Justice Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23, published on 28 November 2023, what the intangible assets under construction written down to nil in the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority were; and why there was a change in approach to the projects involved.

Asked by:
Alex Davies-Jones (Labour)

The Ministry of Justice Annual Report and Accounts 2022-23 discloses two losses in CICA totalling £1 million. Both relate to the write-down of intangible assets under construction to nil, following a change of approach on the digital projects involved.

The first, with a constructive loss of £640,000, related to a digital project looking at improving how applicants for compensation could submit documents to CICA. Following discovery and initial testing the service was found to be resource intensive and not sufficiently developed to support effective use at scale. The project was closed in favour of focusing on development of the GOV.UK application service (Apply).

The second, with a constructive loss of £374,000, related to a project to enable improvements to customer and stakeholder experience in the application process. The discovery work undertaken for this project informed the design and fed into the development of the new Apply service.

Apply is now in full operation, is hosted on GOV.UK and provides a more accessible, user-centred service through which victims can apply for compensation.

Answered by:
Laura Farris (Conservative)
23 February 2024