The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) has once again come under scrutiny. This time, the Government’s compensation scheme has been criticised for the way it handles families of British people murdered outside of the UK and European Union.
This follows the news that the family of backpacker Grace Millane were informed that they would not receive compensation for her death as it did not occur within the EU.
The CICA was created with the intention of compensating blameless victims of violent crime for acts including physical and sexual assaults. The CICA can also compensate in instances where a victim dies as a direct result of sustaining an injury in a crime of violence. In this case, the CICA will make a pay-out to a qualifying relative of the victim.
There are different individuals who will be eligible to claim as a qualifying relative; parents of the deceased fall under this branch. Qualifying relatives will be eligible to receive a bereavement payment of £11,000 (or £5,500 per person if there is more than one claim).
There are also funeral payments, child payments and dependency payments that may be claimed by qualifying relatives of the deceased however these have their own eligibility conditions.
Unfortunately, the CICA’s Scheme states that a claim may only be brought if the incident happens in a ‘relevant place’.
‘Relevant Place’
A relevant place is defined by the CICA as Great Britain or any other place that they include in Annex C of their Scheme – these include British-controlled aircrafts, one of Her Majesty’s ships and any lighthouse off the coast of Great Britain.[i]
The CICA can also assist with claims of compensation in an EU country. They have a dedicated team to deal with this.
If the crime happens in a country outside of the EU, however, a claimant must apply directly to the country where the crime happened and not all countries outside of the EU have a compensation scheme.[ii]
Grace Millane
22-year old Grace Millane, from Wickford, Essex, was in Auckland as part of a round-the-world trip that she was on. She met a 27-year old man, whose identity currently remains suppressed under New Zealand law, using the dating app, Tinder.
In the CCTV footage shown in court, Ms Millane and the man seemed to get on extremely well, he had his arm around her, and they shared a kiss. They were then seen in the lift of the assailant’s hotel – these would be the last moments that anyone would see Ms Millane alive again.
The court heard that the assailant had strangled her to death, before watching pornography and then taking pictures of her lifeless body. The assailant showed little remorse as he then put Ms Millane’s body into a suitcase and met up with a different woman using the same dating app. The suitcase containing Ms Millane’s body was buried by the assailant in the Waitākere Ranges.[iii]
The man had attempted to claim that this was an instance of consensual sex going wrong however this was rejected by the jury and, on 22nd November 2019, he was found unanimously guilty of the murder of Grace Millane.[iv]
Questioning the CICA review
Ms. Millane’s tragic case prompted Labour MP Jim Cunningham to question the Ministry of Justice on what provisions were being taken to “ensure families whose loved ones are murdered abroad have access to criminal injuries compensation”. Wendy Morton, a justice minister, said a review of the CICA was currently “underway”.
This is something that was announced in September 2018 however, other than the abolishment of the grossly unfair “same-roof” rule, and the vague intentions noted when the review was first publicised, there have been no noteworthy announcements regarding the alterations that the government intend to make to the CICA’s scheme.
“A review of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is underway, looking at its scope, and eligibility rules and requirements,” Ms. Morton noted. “The recommendations of the Victims’ Commissioner in her report on the entitlements and experiences of bereaved families following homicide abroad will be considered carefully as part of this review.”[v]
WHAT TO DO NEXT
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[i] Government Source
[ii] Government Source 2
[iii] BBC Source
[iv] BBC Source 2
[v] Telegraph Source
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) has once again come under scrutiny. This time, the Government’s compensation scheme has been criticised for the way it handles families of British people murdered outside of the UK and European Union. This follows the news that the family of backpacker Grace Millane were informed that they would…
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