Vol. 394 No. 5
asked the Minister for Justice the amount of funding which has been allocated to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal during the present year; and whether this allocation is sufficient to cover the cost of awards which have already been made by the tribunal.
102.
asked the Minister for Justice the average period of time between confirmation of an award and the actual payment of the award of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal; and the measures which he has taken to reduce the period of time to alleviate some of the hardship and stress suffered by victims of violence.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 46 and 102 together.
The provision in the Estimates for the current year for payments under the scheme of compensation for personal injuries criminally inflicted is £2 million.
Awards in excess of this amount have been made by the tribunal and the average period between the date of acceptance of an award and actual payment is approximately 18 months. The amount to be provided for any service in the Estimates for any year is decided on the basis of the requirements of the particular service, the competing demands for other services and the overall budgetary position. Against this background the matter of possible extra funding for the tribunal is being kept under review.
