Calls for overhaul of victims scheme

Reform UK's Nigel Farage even told

- HARRY TAYLOR Press Association

CALLS have been made for a compensation scheme for victims of crime to be overhauled amid claims that its shortcomings are adding to victims' distress.

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) was criticised for rising waiting times for victims to get a decision on whether they would receive compensation, with nearly a fifth of claimants waiting more than two years for an answer according to its latest annual report. Some have to wait more than five years for a verdict.

Meanwhile, more than a third of decisions by the body that had been appealed were successfully overturned. The number of complaints has more than doubled in a year.

The Ministry of Justice has blamed this on a record number of applications. A spokesperson said it was hiring more staff and attempting to improve its communications.

Concerns have led a dozen Labour MPs, led by Laurence Turner (Birmingham Northfield) to support a Private Member's Bill that would launch a "fundamental" review of the scheme.

Baroness Newlove, the late Victims' Commissioner, criticised it before her death in November, as the UK Government declined to alter the scheme five years after it began a consultation on changes.

Natalie Queiroz applied to the compensation authority after her partner attempted to kill her and her unborn baby in Sutton Coldfield in 2016.