The Government has rejected recommendations made by the long-running Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) in a move which dismisses the impact of sexual abuse on survivors, say representatives.
Within the 20 recommendations to come out of the eight-year long inquiry was to reform some elements of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) which compensates victims of crime, including some childhood sexual abuse survivors.
“The Government has effectively dumped the recommendations on its ‘too hard’ pile, thereby brushing away victims and survivors as an inconvenience,” said Kim Harrison, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) and a specialist child abuse lawyer who represented survivors in the inquiry.
“IICSA was the most comprehensive inquiry this country has ever seen. The recommendations are based on a wealth of evidence and thousands of testimonials from survivors of childhood rape and abuse gathered over the best part of a decade. It should go without saying that every recommendation is important and needed,” Ms Harrison went on.
“After all that, survivors deserve more than a simple rejection,” she said.
In response to various consultations on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) published this week (9 April) the Government revealed it will not be taking the recommendations forward.
“Sexual grooming of children online can cause deep and lasting harm. IICSA was quite clear that this and other forms of online sexual abuse should be included in the scope of the scheme. Sexual crimes do not have to be physically violent for it to upturn a child’s life, but this has been dismissed,” said Ms Harrison.
“The Government is also going to keep an unfair rule which excludes many survivors with a criminal record from being compensated through the scheme, even when the offences are linked to the abuse they endured as a child. IICSA recognised that being raped and sexually abused as a child has a lasting effect on the paths people take.
“It would also be very simple for the Government to extend the time limit of the compensation scheme to seven years to apply for redress, as we know that survivors of child abuse often take longer than other victims of crime to take that step,” she said.
APIL, a not-for-profit campaign organisation, engaged with and provided evidence to the IICSA and subsequent consultations carried out by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) on reforming the CICS. The IICSA was initially established in 2014.