Compensation Amounts and Caps
HIA Inquiry · Report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry · Issued 20 January 2017 · Addressed to: Northern Ireland Executive
Government responseNorthern Ireland Executive: No response yet (Sep 2019)
DeliveryThe government says in progress (Nov 2019)
Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation
We recommend that the amount of compensation should therefore consist of one or more of the following elements. (i) A standard payment of £7,500 payable to anyone who was abused, including those who experienced a harsh environment, or who witnessed such abuse. (ii) An additional payment of £20,000 in respect of a person sent to Australia under the Child Migrants Scheme. (iii) An additional enhanced payment to anyone who was more severely abused. The maximum amount of compensation payable in respect of (i) and (iii) should not exceed £80,000, and the maximum payment in respect of (i), (ii) and (iii) should not exceed £100,000.
HIA Inquiry, Report of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry · 20 Jan 2017 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
AI-generated evidence summary
The Inquiry recommended tiered compensation amounts and caps for victims of institutional abuse. The Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019, as enacted in November 2019, set compensation at £10,000, an amount up to £70,000 for severity, and £20,000 for child migrants, capped at £80,000 or £100,000 (UK Parliament, Nov 2019). Earlier, in September 2019, The Executive Office and the Northern Ireland Office reported that no formal response had been published because the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed in January 2017 before recommendations could be considered (Northern Ireland Executive response, Sep 2019).
AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 1 Oct 2026.
Government response
●Northern Ireland Executive · No response yet · 4 Sep 2019
No formal government response published. The Inquiry reported on 20 January 2017, the month the Northern Ireland Executive collapsed; the report The Executive Office and the Northern Ireland Office laid before Parliament in September 2019 records that, because of the collapse, the report and its recommendations had not yet been put to the Executive.
Delivery
●The government says in progress · 5 Nov 2019
The amount of compensation which may be awarded is— (a) an amount of £10,000, (b) an amount not exceeding £70,000 if the panel is satisfied that an additional amount is justified by the severity of the matters raised by the application, and (c) an amount of £20,000 if the application is made by or in respect of a person who was sent to Australia under the programme commonly known as the “Child Migrants Programme”. (3) Accordingly, the maximum amount of compensation which may be awarded on an application under this Part is— (a) £80,000, or (b) if the application is made by or in respect of a person who was sent to Australia under the programme commonly known as the “Child Migrants Programme”, £100,000.
From: Historical Institutional Abuse (Northern Ireland) Act 2019, section 12 (as enacted)
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