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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

My Lords, many of the arguments in the Minister’s response indicate how blinkered the Government are in still equating compensation for criminal injuries with compensation for miscarriages of justice. I will not repeat what I said but, for example, justifying the £500,000 cap proposed in the Bill because that is what victims of criminal injuries get, and the sum that is one and a half times the average wage because that is what they get, indicates how the Government have failed to grasp the essential difference. At some point, this will come back to haunt them. Having been party to a generous scheme of compensation in the sense that people are put back, after they have been released from prison, to the position in which they would otherwise have been, in so far as money can do that, and then abandoned that principle for no other reason than to save money—we have not heard anything on principle from them at all—the Government will be haunted by this for a long time. At this time of night, I do not propose to push this matter to a vote on this occasion. However, in subsequent months and years, we will come back to this issue time and again—especially when the press get hold of a particularly vicious miscarriage of justice which illustrates my points. I did not say that the Government or the prosecutor are necessarily to blame; there are cases, which I referred to in my opening remarks, where perjured witnesses have led to a miscarriage of justice. However, the state is responsible for the criminal justice system. When it is in the dock, it should pay. I have exhausted your Lordships’ patience long enough on this topic, and beg leave to withdraw my amendment. Amendment, by leave, withdrawn. [Amendment No. 86B not moved.]