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Court Orders: Compensation

Volume 486: debated on Thursday 15 January 2009

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice (1) how many compensation orders have been issued to offenders in each of the last five years for which figures are available; (248096)

(2) what the average value of a compensation order was in each of the last five years for which figures are available;

(3) what the total monetary value of compensation orders issued by the courts was in each of the last five years for which figures are available; and what percentage of this was collected by the courts and awarded to victims in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

The available information shown in the following table shows the total number of compensation orders imposed, the average amount of those compensation orders and the total monetary value of those compensation orders in each of the last five years. Centrally held data do not cover the percentage of these orders that were subsequently collected.

Number of offenders ordered to pay compensation1, average compensation amount and total sum of compensation orders imposed2, 2003-07

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

Number of offenders

120,465

123,315

131,687

137.446

165,372

Average compensation amount3 (£)

233

203

242

265

222

Sum of all compensation orders imposed (£)

34,091,595

25,032,945

31,868,254

36,423,190

36,323,584

1 These data are not based on a primary disposal basis, a court can order to pay an offender to pay compensation alongside another, e.g. as well as receiving a community sentence an offender could be ordered to pay compensation to the victim. 2 Excludes summary motoring offences. 3 Rounded to the nearest £. Note: These figures have been drawn from administrative data systems. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the returns, the detail collected is subject to the inaccuracies inherent in any large scale recording system. Source: OMS Analytical Services, Ministry of Justice.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what percentage of compensation orders issued by the courts have (a) not been paid at all, (b) not been paid in full and (c) been paid in full in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (248098)

The requested information is not held centrally. Data on the collection of compensation orders are not held by either the Ministry of Justice or HMCS. Information on the enforcement rate of financial penalties imposed by courts cannot make the distinction between compensation orders and other financial penalties.