Written Answer by Minister for Law, K Shanmugam, to Parliamentary Question on Victim Compensation Orders

14 Apr 2014 Posted in Parliamentary speeches and responses

Ms Sylvia Lim, Aljunied GRC

Question
To ask the Minister for Law (a) how many victim compensation orders have been granted by the courts under section 359 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2012 and 2013 respectively; and (b) what is the range of compensation amounts awarded and for what types of offences.

Written Answer

1. Section 359 of the Criminal Procedure Code allows for claims for compensation in criminal proceedings and makes it mandatory for a court convicting a person of any offence to consider whether a compensation order should be made. Thus it has been made compulsory that in every criminal case, the court will have to consider compensation – this was done to help all victims. It is the easiest way for them to get compensation. The number of victim compensation orders that were granted by the Courts under section 359 of the Criminal Procedure Code in 2012 and 2013 can be found in Table 1:

Table 1

2. Of the compensation orders made in 2012 and 2013, more than 70 per cent were made in relation to cases involving hurt, mischief and theft. The remaining cases involved other offences, including cheating. In 70 per cent of all instances where compensation orders were made, the compensation amounts were less than $2,000. In 20 per cent of these cases, the compensation amounts were between the range of $2,000 to $10,000. The remaining 10 per cent were above $10,000 with the highest being $63,716.

Last updated on 14 Apr 2014