---

Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

moved Amendment No. 86A: 86A: Clause 61, page 45, line 3, leave out ““2”” and insert ““6”” The noble Lord said: My Lords, the purpose of my amendments is to highlight the Government’s proposals for limiting compensation to those who have suffered a miscarriage of justice. When the provision in the Bill for Clause 61 was first announced, it was suggested that this would bring it in line with the compensation for the victims of crimes of violence. I declare a remote interest as a former member of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board under the original scheme. The ethos of the compensation for the victims of criminal injuries is that the person who causes the injuries generally is in no position to pay any damages. If he is in a position to pay, if the perpetrator can compensate the victim in a civil action, there is absolutely no limit to the amount of damages that he can recover, and he would recover damages in the ordinary way, assessed on the basis of the injuries to himself, the loss of earnings, and so on. But a policy decision was made some time ago, with the support of all parties, that since victims of criminal acts cannot recover compensation in the overwhelming generality of cases, the state should step in and provide a scheme to give them compensation. As originally envisaged, that scheme was based on common law damages and a person who was the subject of an assault or more serious injury was entitled to recover damages assessed in the ordinary way. In 1992, a decision was taken to take that provision away and to have a statutory scheme which had a tariff attached to it: so much for a finger, so much for a leg, so much for this, that or the other. At that point I resigned from the board because I thought that that was an unfair scheme and a derogation of principle to depart from awarding a person ordinary common law damages. Notwithstanding my resignation, that scheme has continued since that time and over the years it has become subject to a limitation, the upper limit being £500,000. The victims of miscarriages of justice are in a totally different position. The potential defendant in such a case is not a criminal who has caused injury so the state steps in, as a matter of social welfare, to assist the victim and the state has to carry the responsibility for the miscarriage of justice. In my experience, those miscarriages of justice can come from a variety of situations. They can arise because of perjured evidence by witnesses of fact but more often they are discovered as a result of failings in the forensic service or a failure by the prosecution to disclose things. A variety of issues can arise on appeal which results in a person being acquitted and becoming a recognised victim of a miscarriage of justice. The only body that could carry responsibility for that is the body that has imprisoned him, the body that has been responsible for a system of criminal justice which has broken down. Hence, where there is a compensation scheme for a victim of a miscarriage of justice, the victim recovers from the only body that can be held responsible for his imprisonment. The Government are now introducing a cap on damages—on compensation—originally to make it equivalent to the compensation for victims of crimes of violence. That simply confuses two separate reasons for the state granting compensation. In some ways, the victim of a miscarriage of justice is in a worse position than someone who has received a physical injury, short of death, because when the person who has been locked up is eventually released by the Court of Appeal, what do they go back to? Generally, he or she is homeless and has lost his or her family; generally, the job has gone. In addition to all of that, during that period of imprisonment they may have suffered enormous psychological damage and, in many cases, psychiatric illness arising out of it. It is not possible that there should be a limit where one could say, ““It has to be under £500,000”” when, over a period of years, just the provision of a home or a job would bring someone swiftly up to that level of money. Accordingly, our amendments would, first, extend the proposed limitation of two years to six for bringing a claim from the date that the miscarriage of justice is discovered, which brings it in line with most civil claims. Secondly, they would remove the cap on compensation—where, admittedly, as your Lordships can see, the Government are prepared to raise the limit to £1 million by their own amendment. However, often that too can be exceeded. Our third objective is to remove from the Bill the limitation on loss of earnings. Under the Bill, a person who has been imprisoned for many years is entitled only to one-and-a-half times the average national wage by way of compensation for loss of earnings. It does not matter how high-flying he may have been in his profession or occupation, or what sort of opportunities for promotion he has missed, and so on; the claim is to be limited in that way. We submit that that is grossly unfair. We believe that with the scheme for compensating people, as originally envisaged and administered by the noble Lord, Lord Brennan, who, with all of his skilled expertise in personal injury cases has done a great deal for people who have been the victims of miscarriages of justice, there should be a maintenance of the present position. Another matter causing concern about compensation is that your Lordships’ House decided that the scheme is such that someone must have the cost of board and lodging over their period of imprisonment deducted from their compensation by the state. It is, I respectfully suggest, an insult to have to pay for the period of imprisonment under what is to be recognised as a miscarriage of justice. That is a mean provision. It cannot come from principle, but only from a desire to save money. It comes directly from the Treasury; we oppose it absolutely wholeheartedly, and I hope that your Lordships will agree with what I have said.