Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority: Standards
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the average time taken by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority to (a) reach initial decisions and (b) review decisions; and what steps he is taking to (i) reduce delays and (ii) help ensure that claims are resolved within the Authority’s published 12-month target.
Answered by Catherine Atkinson
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012 (the 2012 Scheme) does not set a time limit for applications to be decided.
Most applications are decided within 12 months. Each case must be considered on its own facts. In most cases, CICA requires information from third parties such as the police and medical authorities to decide a claim.
Some applications by necessity take longer to decide. This could be where information is not available due to ongoing court proceedings, where CICA needs time to assess the long-term impact of complex injuries (e.g. brain injuries), or where there is an application for loss of earnings (which require at least 28 weeks of loss).
CICA has continued to uplift staff numbers in line with funding and identify operational efficiencies to ensure applications are decided as quickly as possible.
In the financial year 2024-25, the average time to make a decision was 370 days. The average time to make a review decision was 224 days.
These figures do not include applications deferred under paragraph 98 of the 2012 Scheme.
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