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IRA Manchester Bombings

Volume 448: debated on Thursday 6 July 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make arrangements for payments to be made to the victims of the 15 June 1996 IRA Manchester bombings on terms similar to the payments being made to victims of the 7 July London bombings and their families. (76533)

The victims of the Manchester bombing and the 7/7 bombings were/are eligible for criminal injuries compensation under the terms of the statutory criminal injuries compensation scheme approved by Parliament which applied at the date their application was/is received. The payments made to both sets of victims, and indeed to all victims of violent crime in Great Britain, are assessed and paid on the basis of the scheme applying when their application is received. No special arrangements or payments under the current scheme are being made for 7/7 victims.

However, in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, the Mayor of London set up the London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund in partnership with the British Red Cross. The Government donated £1 million to the fund in July 2005. The Government announced on 8 June 2006 that, in recognition of the exceptional circumstances of the London bombings, it was donating a further £2.5 million to the fund, Official Report, column 38WS. The trustees of the charity will decide how the extra money will be distributed among victims of the 7/7 bombings in the form of charitable grants.