2015-16 Accounts of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
Amyas Morse, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG), has issued a report on the 2015-16 accounts of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) makes payments to individuals who have suffered as a result of a violent crime in accordance with the statutory Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (the Scheme), issued under section 11(1) of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1995 (the Act).
The C&AG has issued a clear audit opinion on the regularity of payments made under the Scheme, with an accompanying report. The report from the National Audit Office identified a small number of complex cases where recipients of compensation had been either overpaid or underpaid, by comparison to the requirements of the Scheme and, as such, were irregular. These errors had not been picked up by the quality assurance regime in place at CICA.
Working with the CICA, the C&AG established that the level of these irregular payments across the broader population was not material. As such, the C&AG was able to issue a clear audit opinion on the regularity of payments made under the Scheme during 2015-16. However, the C&AG’s report, accompanying his opinion, sets out the issues that were found and the actions taken by CICA to address the reasons for the level of errors found.
The CICA has reviewed the control framework in place over the calculation of compensation payments and has implemented a new quality assurance framework to improve the accuracy of complex decision-making.
The CICA has written to the small number of applicants found to have been underpaid and is taking steps to compensate them.
