Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
 |
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| Type | Government agency |
|---|---|
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Region served
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United Kingdom |
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Chief Executive
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Carole Oatway |
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Parent organisation
|
Ministry of Justice |
| Website | www |
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) is an executive agency of the UK Government. The Authority, established in 1996 and based in Glasgow, administers a compensation scheme for injuries caused to victims of violent crime in England, Scotland and Wales. It is funded by the Ministry of Justice in England and Wales and the Justice Directorate in Scotland. The current Chief Executive is Carole Oatway.
Since the scheme was set up in 1964, the Authority and its predecessor, the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, have paid more than £3 billion in compensation, making it among the largest and most generous of its type in the world.
However, it has been criticised on occasions for failing to provide adequate compensation to victims of serious crime, particularly people seriously injured as a result of crime, rape victims and the parents of murdered children.
It has also been criticised for claiming that the applicant was a contributor to the incident from which they sustained their injury, and in cases of murder or manslaughter that the deceased had contributed to his or her own death; on this basis its compensation payouts to claimants have been reduced to lower amounts and it has even refused to pay any compensation at all in some cases. It has also refused to pay compensation to families bereaved by crime if the deceased had any criminal convictions.
Since the closure of its London office, CICA has employed 450 civil service staff from the Scottish Government and the Ministry of Justice in an office in Glasgow to process and decide on applications for compensation from victims of violent crime. Each year, some 65,000 applications are received and nearly £200 million is paid in compensation payments.
Until 1996, awards were set according to what the victim would have received in a successful civil action against the offender. However, since April 1996, the level of compensation has been determined according to a scale set by Parliament. The scheme and the 1996 tariff were revised in 2001, 2008 and 2012. The tariff has descriptions of more than 400 injuries; each is attached to one of 25 levels of compensation between £1,000 and £250,000. In certain cases, victims may also apply for financial loss compensation (for example, through loss of earnings or medical care costs).
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Wikipedia