Anti-trafficking organisations call for the removal of the Criminal Injuries Compensation scheme ‘unspent conviction rule’
/Thirteen civil society organisations and legal aid providers working to end trafficking and modern slavery have called for the removal of the ‘unspent conviction rule’ from the Criminal Injuries Scheme. In this joint response to a supplementary consultation on the rule, which is part of the Ministry of Justice’s wider review of the scheme, we show that the ‘unspent conviction rule’ is exclusionary and discriminatory against survivors of trafficking and modern slavery who have already had a grave crime committed against them.
Compensation for survivors: crucial but often out of reach
Access to compensation is a vital component of criminal justice and redress. It can give survivors a genuine opportunity to rebuild their lives and reduce their vulnerability to the risks of re-trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
In principal, there are different avenues through which survivors of trafficking and modern slavery can apply for compensation in the UK, but in reality there are big obstacles to doing so. As a result, very few survivors manage to get the compensation from either their trafficker or the state.
The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme - a scheme of last resort but not fit for purpose for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery
An application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme is the only route for many survivors of trafficking and modern slavery to obtain compensation. Typically, these survivors are unable to identify their trafficker, or their trafficker will have no significant assets or have dissipated their assets. Often they are simply too vulnerable to face their trafficker in court or contemplate further legal proceedings.
Yet, few survivors are able to access the scheme and fewer still are able to obtain an award through the scheme. The Independent Anti Slavery Commissioner documented that between 1 January 2012 and 28 February 2020, just 283 applications were made to the scheme by victims of trafficking, with only 54 of these cases awarded compensation.
The Scheme at present is not fit for purpose for victims of trafficking and modern slavery. It is not genuinely accessible by an unrepresented survivor and the vast majority are refused compensation in circumstances where it ought to be granted.
The ‘unspent conviction rule’ of the Scheme
Survivors of trafficking and modern slavery are denied access to compensation from the Scheme due to the ‘unspent conviction rule’, under which an award may be withheld or reduced where the applicant has an unspent conviction. There is currently no discretion for the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to look at the circumstances of the conviction, for example, whether the conviction was as a result of acts that a survivor of trafficking and modern slavery was compelled to do in the course of their exploitation.
Many victims of trafficking and modern slavery are compelled to commit criminal offences as part of their exploitation. This includes children and adults trafficked to work in cannabis cultivation, in so-called ‘county lines’ drug trafficking cases, and where victims have been trafficked for sexual exploitation, amongst other examples. The National Referral Mechanism (NRM) data for 2021 states that 49% of victims had some form of criminal exploitation as part of their exploitation.
Although the UK has non punishment provisions, victims of trafficking and modern slavery continue to be prosecuted and convicted for offences committed under coercion. In many cases, defence lawyers, the Crown prosecution service (CPS) and the courts are not recognising trafficking indicators and forced criminality. Once convicted it is hard to have those convictions overturned, even if a person is later identified as a trafficking victim.
As survivors of trafficking and modern slavery are a group who are particularly likely to incur convictions for which they were not at fault, and are being penalised in access to compensation under the scheme for this, we call for the unspent conviction to be removed. This is one of the options under consideration by the consultation and we hope the government takes this opportunity to remedy a barrier in access to compensation that survivors of trafficking and modern slavery need to rebuild their lives.
