Terrorism: Compensation Mr. Lidington To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how much compensation has been paid to foreign nationals who were victims of terrorism in the UK in each year since 1997. Tessa Jowell I have been asked to reply as the Minister for Humanitarian Assistance. The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority does not maintain records for the nationalities of those to whom it makes criminal injuries compensation awards. However, the numbers of awards made under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) to overseas residents who were victims of terrorism in the UK, and the total value of these awards, for the years 1997-98 to 2008-09 are detailed in the following table: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | |Number of awards made under the CICS to individuals with addresses outside the UK|Total value of awards (£)| ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1997-98 |0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1998-99 |0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |1999-2000|0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2000-01 |1 |2,713 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2001-02 |1 |3,225 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2002-03 |0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2003-04 |0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2004-05 |0 |0 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2005-06 |6 |44,001 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2006-07 |11 |79,807 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2007-08 |16 |185,266 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |2008-09 |3 |539,491 | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mr. Lidington To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to which countries he has made representations regarding compensation for British victims of overseas terrorism. Mr. Ivan Lewis An EU Council Directive of 29 April 2004 requires EU member states to provide fair and appropriate compensation to victims of intentional crime committed in a member state. Many countries outside the EU also offer compensation to foreign nationals who are victims of terrorism in their countries. Where other governments have compensation schemes, we help signpost them to families if an offer of compensation has not been immediately forthcoming from the country in which the incident took place. For countries that do not have compensation schemes, we encourage governments to pay compensation to British victims of overseas terrorism. The issue of compensation schemes has been raised with a number of countries, with the aim of more governments around the world compensating victims of terrorism, as the Government does if there is a terrorist incident in the UK. Mr. Lidington To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many UK nationals affected by overseas terrorism have been assisted by exceptional assistance measures since 2006; and how much each such measure cost. Mr. Ivan Lewis Since the Exceptional Assistance Measures were announced to Parliament in June 2008, they have been activated for two incidents affecting British nationals who have been victims of terrorism overseas: to assist the families of those affected by the Mumbai terrorist attacks in 2008, and more recently to cover the costs of repatriating the bodies of two British nationals who were kidnapped in Iraq in 2007. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided assistance to the six families affected by these two incidents. The current figure for the Mumbai attacks stands at £7,592 and at £20,000 for the Iraq kidnap repatriation costs.