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19/04/2006
Criminal appeal pay-outs slashed by £5 million
The government has announced plans to slash the amount of compensation paid to people wrongly convicted of crimes by £5 million per year.
Individual awards will now be capped at £500,000, bringing them in line with the maximum amount paid to victims of crime.
Previously, the highest amount paid to a victim of a miscarriage of justice was £2.1 million.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said that the changes would create “a fairer, simpler and speedier system for compensating miscarriages of justice”. He said: “I am scrapping the discretionary scheme which has become increasingly anomalous and I do not believe that this can continue to be justified.
“We will continue to meet our statutory obligations to anyone who suffers a miscarriage of justice, but I will bring forward legislation to cap payments to £500,000 bringing it into line with compensation paid to victims of crime.
“The government is committed to putting victims' interests at the heart of the criminal justice system. These changes will save more than £5 million a year, which we will plough back into improving criminal justice and support for victims of crime.”
The Home Secretary also said that there would be a ministerial review, with the Lord Chancellor and Attorney General to examine the test used by the Court of Appeal to quash convictions.
It will examine to what extent an error in the trial process necessarily means a miscarriage of justice.
It has also been reported that those people who win their first attempt at an appeal will receive no compensation. This would mean that people such as Angela Cannings, who was wrongfully convicted of killing her two sons, would not receive any compensation.
Mrs Cannings served 20 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on her first appeal.
Campaigners have argued that reducing the amount of compensation for victims of miscarriages of justice would not take into account the impact that wrongful convictions has on the lives of those involved.
(KMcA)
Individual awards will now be capped at £500,000, bringing them in line with the maximum amount paid to victims of crime.
Previously, the highest amount paid to a victim of a miscarriage of justice was £2.1 million.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke said that the changes would create “a fairer, simpler and speedier system for compensating miscarriages of justice”. He said: “I am scrapping the discretionary scheme which has become increasingly anomalous and I do not believe that this can continue to be justified.
“We will continue to meet our statutory obligations to anyone who suffers a miscarriage of justice, but I will bring forward legislation to cap payments to £500,000 bringing it into line with compensation paid to victims of crime.
“The government is committed to putting victims' interests at the heart of the criminal justice system. These changes will save more than £5 million a year, which we will plough back into improving criminal justice and support for victims of crime.”
The Home Secretary also said that there would be a ministerial review, with the Lord Chancellor and Attorney General to examine the test used by the Court of Appeal to quash convictions.
It will examine to what extent an error in the trial process necessarily means a miscarriage of justice.
It has also been reported that those people who win their first attempt at an appeal will receive no compensation. This would mean that people such as Angela Cannings, who was wrongfully convicted of killing her two sons, would not receive any compensation.
Mrs Cannings served 20 months in prison before the convictions were overturned on her first appeal.
Campaigners have argued that reducing the amount of compensation for victims of miscarriages of justice would not take into account the impact that wrongful convictions has on the lives of those involved.
(KMcA)
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