“1. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (1) The Secretary of State shall make arrangements for the payment of compensation to, or in respect of, persons who have sustained one or more criminal injuries. (2) Any such arrangements shall include the making of a scheme providing, in particular, for- (a) The circumstances in which awards may be made; and (b) The categories of person to whom awards may be made. (3) The scheme shall be known as the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme. (4) In this Act – … “award” means an award of compensation made in accordance with the provisions of the Scheme; “claims officer” means a person appointed by the Secretary of State under section 3(4)(b); “compensation” means compensation payable under an award; “criminal injury”, “loss of earnings” and “special expenses” have such meaning as maybe specified; “the Scheme” means the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme; “Scheme manager” means a person appointed by the Secretary of State to have overall responsibility for managing the provisions of the Scheme (other than those to which section 5(2) applies); and “specified” means specified by the Scheme.” (a) The circumstances in which awards may be made; and (b) The categories of person to whom awards may be made. … “award” means an award of compensation made in accordance with the provisions of the Scheme; “claims officer” means a person appointed by the Secretary of State under section 3(4)(b); “compensation” means compensation payable under an award; “criminal injury”, “loss of earnings” and “special expenses” have such meaning as maybe specified; “the Scheme” means the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme; “Scheme manager” means a person appointed by the Secretary of State to have overall responsibility for managing the provisions of the Scheme (other than those to which section 5(2) applies); and “specified” means specified by the Scheme.”
“49. (1) Where a person in whose favour an award under this Scheme is made subsequently receives any other payment in respect of the same injury in any of the circumstances mentioned in paragraph 48, but the award made under this Scheme was not reduced accordingly, the person will be required to repay [CICA] in full up to the amount of the other payment. (2) Any monies received by the Authority under sub-paragraph (1) above that relate to criminal injuries sustained otherwise than in Scotland shall be paid to the Secretary of State and any monies that related to criminal injuries sustained in Scotland shall be paid to the Scottish Ministers.”
“42. Where a qualifying claimant was under 18 years of age at the time of the deceased’s death and was dependent on the deceased for parental services, the following additional compensation may also be payable: (a) a payment for loss of that parent’s services at an annual rate of Level 5 of the Tariff; … Each of these payments will be multiplied by an appropriate multiplier selected by a claims officer in accordance with paragraph 32 (multipliers, discount factors and life expectancy), taking account of the period remaining before the qualifying claimant reaches the age of 18 and of any other factors and contingencies which appear to the claims officer to be relevant.”
“I promise to advise and repay the Authority from any damages, settlement or other compensation which may be received in this respect. I understand that if I do not advise and repay in full any such payment the Authority will take court action to recover the same.”
“1. The [appellant] be allowed to accept the sum of£15,000 in full and final settlement of her claim (which comprises£10,000 for a breach ofArticle 2 ECHR and£5,000 for a breach ofArticle 3 ECHR ); 2. The approval of the sum of£15,000 is made on the basis that it reflects a sum for non-pecuniary losses as “just satisfaction” under the Human Rights Act and is distinct from any sum that [the appellant] has received from [CICA].”
“17. The nature of that connection is left imprecise by the language of the Scheme – ‘in respect of’. This is wider than ‘payment for the same injury’, which could have been used but was not. Beyond that, I am not going to attempt to define the nature of the connection or the extent of the connection. The words must stand for themselves in the context of the Scheme and in particular of paragraph 49(1).”
“21. Finally, a word about double recovery. When the law provides for damages for loss, it does not allow double recovery, which would be contrary to the principle that the purposes of damages is to compensate for the loss. Paragraph 49 includes that. It would apply for example if the victim of an assault received both a CICA award and an award of damages in a civil claim against the assailant. But the paragraph is not limited to double recovery in that sense. If it were, it would provide for payments received for the same injury rather than, as it does, in respect of the same injury. Paragraph 49 has the wider purpose of protecting the expenditure of public funds by limiting the circumstances when a CICA award can be made and retained. It is not limited to preventing double recovery for the same loss.”
“38. To avoid double compensation, compensation already received from the offender or other sources may be deducted from the amount of compensation payable from public funds. It is for the Parties to specify which sums are so deductible. In some of the member States, for instance, sums paid to the victim under private insurance schemes are not generally deductible from compensation. 39. A State may require any compensation the victim receives from the offender or other sources after being compensated from public funds to be repaid in full or in part (depending on the sum received) to the State or the authority paying compensation from public funds. This eventuality is liable to arise, for example, where: - a victim suffering hardship receives State compensation pending decision of an action brought against an offender or agency; - the offender, unknown at the time of compensation from public funds, is subsequently traced and convicted, and has fully or partly made reparation to the victim. 40. Informing the compensating authority of subsequent compensation awards poses obvious problems. In some States, the courts inform the compensating authority of awards made to the victim, thus facilitating restitution of the sums allowed by the compensating authority.”
“Loss of parental services 16. A qualifying claimant aged under 18 at the date the victim died may be able to get compensation on top of any amount for dependency for what is called ‘loss of parental services’. This is an amount of money to provide some small recognition of the tasks parents carry out for their children. The current compensation level for loss of parental services is the equivalent of£2,000 for every year until the child reaches 18. We will apply a multiplier to produce a lump sum …”
“107. … the courts have sometimes recognised that a dependant may suffer a pecuniary loss as a result of the death of a relative that is not adequately compensated by an award for services dependency. A pecuniary loss, for these purposes, means a loss that is conceptually capable of being valued in money or money’s worth. The award for services dependency is calculated by reference to the cost of replacing those services commercially; and this cost may be an imperfect proxy for the true value of the deceased’s services lost. Thus, in Regan, the dependency figure was increased to reflect the extra hours the mother spent in the evenings and weekends when no substitute for her services was available. Similarly, in Fleet [Fleet v Fleet [2009] EWGC 3166 (QB)], the additional award reflected the value of the care the husband would have given to his older wife. Likewise, the award in Devoy [Devoy v William Doxford & Sons Ltd[2009] EWHC 1589 (QB) ] was justifiable insofar as it was intended to compensate for the care that the husband would have provided to his disabled wife. In all these cases, the services could in principle be valued in monetary terms. Awards made on this basis do not offend the principle that, bereavement apart, compensation is available for pecuniary loss only. They are simply an attempt to capture more accurately the pecuniary value of the deceased’s services in circumstances where the cost of replacement services does not capture the whole of the loss, because the services in question are, at least in part, not commercially available. …”
“Just satisfaction: If the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.”
“…[ECHR] claims have very different objectives from civil actions. Where civil actions are designed essentially to compensate claimants for their losses, Convention claims are intended rather to uphold minimum human rights standards and to vindicate those rights. …”
“57. … if (i) the domestic law claim that is settled was made by the same person as seeks to make an article 2 claim and (ii) the head of loss embraced by the settlement broadly covers the same ground as the loss which is the subject of the article 2 claim, then I would expect the ECtHR to say that, by settling the former, the claimant is to be taken to have renounced any claim to the latter. 58. To return to the facts of the present case, I do not accept that by settling the 1934 Act negligence claim on behalf of [the deceased’s] estate, Mr Rabone renounced an article 2 claim on behalf of himself and Mrs Rabone for damages for non-pecuniary loss for their bereavement. No such claim had been made in the negligence proceedings because such a claim was not available in English law. That is becausesection 1A of the Fatal Accidents Act 1976 (as inserted bysection 3(1) of the Administration of Justice Act 1982 ) provides that a claim by parents for damages for bereavement for the loss of a child (currently fixed by section 1A(3) at£11,800 ) shall only be for the benefit of the parents of a minor and [the deceased] was more than 18 years of age at the date of her death. In these circumstances, the settlement of the 1934 Act claim did not amount to an implied renunciation of any article 2 claim. In the absence of an express renunciation, the settlement of itself had no legal effect on the status of Mr and Mrs Rabone as victims for the purpose of their article 2 claim. …”
“72. … In the present case, the trust admitted that they had negligently caused [the deceased’s] death and they paid compensation to reflect that admission. There is a considerable degree of overlap between the claim in negligence and the article 2 claim. The essential features of the case against the trust were that: (i) [the deceased] was a vulnerable patient in the care of the trust at the material time; (ii) she was known to be a suicide risk; (iii) the trust acted negligently in failing to take reasonable steps to protect her; and (iv) their negligence caused her death. In substance these features formed the basis of the claim in negligence and the claim for breach of the article 2 operational duty.”
“32. The search for “principles” in this broad sense is by no means alien to British practitioners, at least to those who had experience of practice in the field of personal injury law before the Judicial Studies Board published its guidelines. The conventions underlying the amounts awarded as general damages (or, in Scotland, solatium) for particular forms of harm could only be inferred from an analysis of the awards in different cases and a comparison of their facts. It is an exercise of a similar kind which may be called for when applying section 8 of the 1998 Act in connection with the quantification of awards for non-pecuniary damage (or “moral damage”, as the court sometimes describes it, employing a literal translation of the French expression).”
“… the court adopts a more broad brush approach to setting an appropriate quantum award. No attempt therefore is made to apply a “but for” or counterfactual analysis, or seek to equate harm with any identifiable measure of financial value. Routinely, quantum figures are justified simply by the broadest of references to “equity”.”
“65. There are important differences between the Convention’s strategic purpose to secure minimum standards of human rights protection, and the English private law purpose (as Lord Brown described it in the Van Colle case[2009] AC 225 ) of compensation for loss. It is elementary that in a negligence claim at common law, the court asks whether the defendant owes a duty of care to the claimant: that is, a duty to take reasonable care; and “reasonable” care is generally what a “reasonable” man - traditionally the passenger on the Clapham omnibus - would take it to be (though where the duty is owed by an expert, such as a doctor, the court considers the standard set by his profession). If the duty is established, the question will be whether any act or omission relied on by the claimant (a) constitutes a breach of the duty and (b) has caused the claimant loss; loss is a defining element of the tort. 66. The process by which a human rights claim is adjudicated is quite different. The starting point is not the relationship between the claimant and the (state) defendant. It is to ascertain whether the case is within the scope of any of the rights or freedoms which the Convention requires the state to secure; and then, if it is, to decide whether the state has or has not violated the article or articles in question. The possibility of compensation for the individual complainant is secondary: the provision for “just satisfaction” (article 41of the Convention, discussed by Lord Bingham in R (Greenfield) v Secretary of State for the Home Department[2005] 1 WLR 673 ; cf section 8 of the 1998 Act) is essentially discretionary. The focus is on the state’s compliance, not the claimant’s loss.”
“64. It is well settled, however, that the award of compensation for breach of a Convention right serves a purpose which is distinctly different from that of an order for the payment of damages in a civil action … 65. Laws LJ said in para 68 of his judgment in the Court of Appeal … that the inquiry into compliance with the article 3 duty is “first and foremost concerned, not with the effect on the claimant, but with the overall nature of the investigative steps to be taken by the state.”
“136. In substance, the Convention-based duty is not aimed at compensation but at upholding and vindicating minimum human rights standards. It is, substantially, to insist on performance of a public duty.”
“911. Third, where it is shown that the violation has caused “pecuniary damage” (i.e. financial loss) to the applicant, the court will normally award the full amount of the loss as just satisfaction: see paragraphs 10 - 12 of the Practice Direction. … 912. Fourth, it is also the practice of the court to award financial compensation for “non-pecuniary damage”, such as mental or physical suffering, where the existence of such damage is established: see paragraphs 13 - 14 of the Practice Direction. If the court considers that a monetary award is necessary, the Practice Direction states that it will make an assessment “on an equitable basis, having regard to the standards which emerge from its case law”: see paragraph 14. The case law of the European court shows that awards for mental suffering are by no means confined to cases where there is medical evidence that the applicant has suffered psychological harm and that compensation may be awarded for injury to feelings variously described as distress, anxiety, frustration, feelings of injustice or humiliation, prolonged uncertainty, disruption to life or powerlessness. The case law also shows that the court will often be ready to infer from the nature of the violation that such injury to feelings has been suffered. Applicants who wish to be compensated for non-pecuniary damage are invited by the court to specify a sum which in their view would be equitable: see paragraph 15 of the Practice Direction. … 914. Sixth, in deciding what, if any, award is necessary to afford just satisfaction, the court does not consider only the loss or damage actually sustained by the applicant but takes into account the “overall context” in which the breach of a European Convention right occurred in deciding what is just and equitable in all the circumstances of the case. This may require account to be taken of moral injury. …”
“65. In the sense relevant for present purposes, payments made by the state under the United Kingdom’s criminal injuries compensation scheme are in my view to be regarded as welfare benefits. Such payments are no different in principle from, for example, benefits payable to persons who have suffered industrial injuries … or to people who have disabilities. Awards of compensation under the criminal injuries scheme are not made because the state is responsible for causing the victim’s injuries, any more than the state is responsible if an accident occurs at work or if a person is or becomes disabled. (In the limited circumstances in which the state is responsible for failing to prevent crimes, a separate claim for damages will arise: see D v Comr of Police of the Metropolis[2018] 2 WLR 895 .) The underlying justification for making payments to victims of violent crimes is that they have suffered a very serious misfortune which the whole community should help to compensate for reasons of “equity and social solidarity”: see the second recital to the Convention on the Compensation of Victims of Violent Crimes.”
“97. … Furthermore, in the case of a breach of Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, which rank as the most fundamental provisions of the Convention, compensation for the non-pecuniary damage flowing from the breach should in principle be available as part of the range of redress.”
“99. The Court recalls that in general actions in the domestic courts for damages may provide an effective remedy in cases of alleged unlawfulness or negligence by public authorities[…].While in this case a civil action in negligence or under the Fatal Accidents Act before the domestic courts might have furnished a fact-finding forum with the power to attribute responsibility for Christopher Edwards’ death, this redress was not pursued by the applicants. It is not apparent (and the Government have not argued) that non-pecuniary damages (for the suffering and injuries of Christopher Edwards before his death or the distress and anguish of the applicants at his death) would have been recoverable or that legal aid would have been available to pursue them. The Court does not find that this avenue of redress was in the circumstances of the case of practical use.”
“104. The applicants claim non-pecuniary loss in respect of the anxiety, fear, pain and injury suffered by their son Christopher immediately before his death, their own anguish, severe distress and grief suffered at the loss of their son and the ongoing stress and associated ill-health suffered by the second applicant as a result of the traumatic loss and ongoing frustration at the inability to pursue an effective avenue of redress. They do not specify a sum.”
“144. … the Court has found that the authorities failed in their obligation underArticle 2 of the Convention to carry out a prompt and effective investigation into the circumstances of the death. The applicant must thereby have suffered feelings of frustration, distress and anxiety. The Court considers that the applicant sustained some non-pecuniary damage which is not sufficiently compensated by the finding of a violation as a result of the Convention. It has not taken into account the ex gratia compensation payment from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme which related to the damage flowing from a criminal act and not to the lack of procedural efficacy in the investigation. 145. Making an assessment on an equitable basis, the Court awards the applicant the sum of£10,000 .”
“224. The Court would observe that there is no express provision for non-pecuniary or moral damage. Evolving case by case, the Court’s approach in awarding just satisfaction has distinguished situations where the applicant has suffered evident trauma, whether physical or psychological, pain and suffering, distress, anxiety, frustration, feelings of injustice or humiliation, prolonged uncertainty, disruption to life, or real loss of opportunity (see, for example, Elsholz v. Germany [GC], no. 25735/94, § 70, ECHR 2000-VIII; Selmouni v. France [GC], no. 25803/94, § 123, ECHR 1999-V; and Smith and Grady v. the United Kingdom (just satisfaction), nos. 33985/96 and 33986/96, § 12, ECHR 2000-IX) and those situations where the public vindication of the wrong suffered by the applicant, in a judgment binding on the Contracting State, is a powerful form of redress in itself. In many cases where a law, procedure or practice has been found to fall short of Convention standards this is enough to put matters right (see, for example, Christine Goodwin v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 28957/95, § 120, ECHR 2002-VI; Saadi v. Italy [GC], no. 37201/06, § 188, ECHR 2008; and S. and Marper v. the United Kingdom [GC], nos. 30562/04 and 30566/04, § 134, ECHR 2008). In some situations, however, the impact of the violation may be regarded as being of a nature and degree as to have impinged so significantly on the moral well-being of the applicant as to requiresomething further. Such elements do not lend themselves to a process of calculation or precise quantification. Nor is it the Court’s role to function akin to a domestic tort mechanism court in apportioning fault and compensatory damages between civil parties. Its guiding principle is equity, which above all involves flexibility and an objective consideration of what is just, fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, including not only the position of the applicant but the overall context in which the breach occurred. Its non-pecuniary awards serve to give recognition to the fact that moral damage occurred as a result of a breach of a fundamental human right and reflect in the broadest of terms the severity of the damage; they are not, nor should they be, intended to give financial comfort or sympathetic enrichment at the expense of the Contracting Party concerned.”
“The Court recalls that it is not its role under art. 41 to function akin to a domestic tort mechanism court in apportioning fault and compensatory damages between civil parties. Its guiding principle is equity, which above all involves flexibility and an objective consideration of what is just, fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, including not only the position of the applicant but the overall context in which the breach occurred. Its non-pecuniary awards serve to give recognition to the fact that moral damage occurred as a result of a breach of a fundamental human-right and reflect in the broadest of terms the severity of the damage. …”
“10. The Court’s award in respect of non-pecuniary damage serves to give recognition to the fact that non-material harm, such as mental or physical suffering, occurred as a result of a breach of a fundamental human right and reflects in the broadest of terms the severity of the damage. Hence, the causal link between the alleged violation and the moral harm is often reasonable to assume, the applicants being not required to produce any additional evidence of their suffering. 11. It is the nature of non-pecuniary damage that it does not lend itself to precise calculation. The claim for non-pecuniary damage suffered needs therefore not be quantified or substantiated, the applicant can leave the amount to the Court’s discretion. 12. If the Court considers that a monetary award is necessary, it will make an assessment on an equitable basis, which above all involves flexibility and an objective consideration of what is just, fair and reasonable in all the circumstances of the case, including not only the position of the applicant, as well as his or her own possible contribution to the situation complained of, but the overall context in which the breach occurred.”
“65. With regard to payment by the CICA, DSD and NBV received payments amounting to£13,500 for DSD and£2,000 for NBV. Under the terms of the CICA rules if a victim of crime receives compensation for the crime then the CICA award has to be repaid. In the case of DSD and NBV the CICA payments were specifically for the consequences of the criminal assault. Accordingly, no award was made for harm caused by the entirely different acts and omissions of the MPS. To the extent to which those payments may reflect harm which overlaps with the harm being compensated in this case then the principles that I have applied in relation to the civil claim against Worboys should apply. Accordingly (i) I should take the CICA awards into account as I have done in relation to the civil payments and (ii) they would not be repayable by virtue of the award I make herein.”