To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make a statement on the extent to which compensation has been awarded by the courts to victims during the most recent 12-month period for which figures are available in accordance with the powers conferred by the powers of Criminal Courts Act 1973 as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 1988; and when he intends to evaluate the effectiveness of the legislation in assisting the victims of crime.

The table gives information on the use of compensation orders by the criminal courts in 1989, the latest year for which final figures are available. Provisional figures for 1990 are given in brackets.

	19891	1990
Crown Court
Indictable offences	12,400	(11,900)
Summary offences2	400	(500)
Magistrates courts
Indictable offences	70,500	(73,600)
Summary offences2	43,000	(43,600)
Total	3126,400	(129,600)
1Source: Criminal Statistics 1989.
2 The Criminal Statistics exclude summary motoring offences.
3 All figures rounded to the nearest hundred.

The Home Office research and planning unit has been studying the use of compensation orders in the magistrates courts, including the effect of changes introduced by the Criminal Justice Act 1988. It is hoped that a report of its findings will be published later this year.