R (KJV) v The First-tier Tribunal (Social Entitlement Chamber) and The Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (Interested Party) (CIC): [2026] UKUT 345 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Church on 07 September 2026.
Read the full decision in .
Judicial Summary
In this case the Upper Tribunal considers paragraph 22 of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme 2012, which requires an award under the scheme to be withheld unless the incident giving rise to the criminal injury has been reported to the police “as soon as reasonably practicable”.
The Upper Tribunal decides that having found that the claimant made informal disclosures to police officers about the sexual abuse giving rise to her criminal injury when she was intoxicated and under arrest but declined to make a formal statement, the tribunal should have considered whether these informal disclosures were sufficient to satisfy paragraph 22. The tribunal’s failure to do so amounted to an error of law.
The Upper Tribunal also considers the discretion under paragraph 89 of the scheme to extend the 2-year period for making a claim provided for by paragraph 88 of the scheme and observes that it is not a straightforward matter for someone who has experienced the trauma of sexual abuse in childhood to process what happened to them sufficiently to carry out seemingly straightforward tasks such as disclosing the abuse to the police or making a claim for compensation.
First-tier Tribunal’s decision quashed. Matter remitted for rehearing.