Vol. 384 No. 2
asked the Minister for Justice if his attention has been drawn to the fact that payments from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal have not been paid for persons going back at least as far as 1983; and the plans he has to deal with this situation.
84.
asked the Minister for Justice the number of claims and the amounts involved which have not been met by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal; and if he will ensure that sufficient funds are made available to meet all these claims.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 10 and 84 together. I am aware that there are a number of cases awaiting a decision by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal in respect of which initial applications for compensation were lodged as far back as 1983. These include cases where an initial award made by the tribunal has been rejected and an appeal is pending and cases where the tribunal is awaiting further documentation from the applicants to enable it to make a decision in the case.
In addition, there are the cases where awards have been made but payment is pending. As of 1 November 1988 there were 771 such cases totalling £3,812,000. Thirty-five of these awards refer to cases where the initial application was lodged prior to 31 December 1983. It is not practicable to give a value in respect of claims where awards have not been made and, indeed, may not be made. They number approximately 3,000.
I will today be asking the House to approve a Supplementary Estimate of £4 million on Subhead G.1 of Vote 20 — Office of the Minister for Justice — which will enable all awards made to date to be paid before the end of the year.
I thank the Minister for his reply. Am I to take it that the amount totalling £3,812,000 covering 771 cases will be paid by the end of this year as a result of approval of the Supplementary Estimate? Secondly, can the Minister tell me if the remaining cases are heard this year, when will the awards be paid and are we now once and for all going to get rid of the five year waiting list?
I thank the Deputy for his welcome for the good news. As I said, and I repeat for the purposes of clarification, as of 1 November 1988 there were 771 cases where awards had been made but payments had not been made. These cases came to a total of £3,812,000 and 35 of these awards referred to cases where the initial application was lodged prior to 31 December 1983——
Can the Minister repeat the figures? I think he gave two different figures.
As of 1 November 1988 there were 771 cases, that is cases where awards have been made but payment is pending, and these cases totalled £3,812,000. Thirty five of these awards referred to cases where the initial application was lodged prior to 31 December 1983. It is not practicable to give a value in respect of claims where awards have not been made and, indeed, may not be made, and these claims number approximately 3,000. I will today be asking the House to approve a Supplementary Estimate of £4 million under Subhead G.1 of Vote 20, Office of the Minister for Justice, which will enable all awards made to date to be paid before the end of this year.
That is fine but——
A brief supplementary, please. We have now encroached on priority time.
With regard to the remaining outstanding claims may we take it that they will be paid in 1989 and that the claimants concerned will not have to wait until a further five years have passed before their awards will be paid out?
Given acceptance of my Supplementary Estimate later today, slightly under £6 million will be paid this year and, as the Deputy knows full well, the Estimates for 1989 contain a provision of £2 million for awards under this scheme. That total amount of money should have a substantial impact on the arrears situation.
We must now come to deal with questions nominated for priority.
