Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
Encyclopedia
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority is a non-departmental public body
Non-departmental public body
In the United Kingdom, a non-departmental public body —often referred to as a quango—is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to certain types of public bodies...

 in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. The Authority administers a compensation scheme for injuries caused to victims of violent crime in Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...

 and is funded by the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Justice is a ministerial department of the UK Government headed by the Secretary of State for Justice and Lord Chancellor, who is responsible for improvements to the justice system so that it better serves the public...

 in England and Wales
England and Wales
England and Wales is a jurisdiction within the United Kingdom. It consists of England and Wales, two of the four countries of the United Kingdom...

 and the devolved Scottish Government in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

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, although it has been criticised on occasions for failing to provide adequate compensation to victims of serious crime, particularly parents of murdered children and rape victims, and for claiming that the applicant was a contributor to the incident from which they sustained their injury.

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
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...

 against the offender. However, since April 1996, the level of compensation has been determined according to a scale set by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

. The scheme and the 1996 tariff were revised in 2001. 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).

An amendment to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme has been passed by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...

 and will come into effect from 3 November 2008. All claims registered on or after this date will be dealt with under the 2008 scheme. Ongoing claims registered before this date will still be dealt with under the 2001 scheme.

Generally, claims must be based on crimes that have been reported to the police, although a conviction is not necessary as claims are based on the civil law principle of balance of probabilities rather than the "beyond reasonable doubt
Beyond reasonable doubt
Beyond a reasonable doubt refers to the legal principle of reasonable doubt, the standard of proof required in most criminal cases.Beyond Reasonable Doubt may also refer to:...

" method used in UK criminal courts.

Appeals against decisions of the Authority can be made to the First-tier Tribunal
First-tier Tribunal
The First-tier Tribunal is part of the administrative justice system of the United Kingdom. It was created in 2008 as part of a programme, set out in the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, to rationalise the tribunal system, and has since taken on the functions of twenty previously...

.

The current (August 2009) Chief Executive is Carole A. Oatway.
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