Member News
By Lord Clement-Jones - 19th December 2011
Lord Clement-Jones calls on the government to deliver on its promise to compensate victims of the Summer riots, fulfilling its earlier promises.
As has been reported several times in the media, thousands of people claiming under the 1886 Riot (Damages) Act in London and elsewhere are still waiting for compensation, almost six months after the summer riots.
Within days of the riots on 11th August this year, the prime minister assured householders and small businesses that they could claim under the Act, and extended the time allowed for them to claim. He expressly said that the police would be given the funds to pay claims made.
Yet out of an estimated £200m of claims, it seems that only £3,580 has been paid out. In some cases the police have claimed that the disturbances in their area did not amount to a riot under the terms of the Act. In others they have disputed the validity of business interruption claims – that is, losses in income consequential on the riots, which came on top of physical damage. In all cases, progress in settling claims seems to have been grindingly slow.
Many of those affected by the riots were uninsured and it is especially hard for them to re-establish their homes or businesses without Riot Act compensation. It is doubly frustrating and unjust for them to be subject to a screen of technicalities which seem to have been erected by police authorities to avoid or delay payment.
My question today to the Home Office minister, Lord Henley asks what action the government is taking to ensure that police authorities speedily and fairly settle claims outstanding under the Riot (Damages) Act. I will be pressing him to issue firm guidance to police authorities to speed up settlement and put aside legal quibbles so that the prime minister’s assurances, given so readily and rightly back in August, are fully honoured in the way he clearly intended.
Timothy Clement-Jones is a managing partner at DLA Piper. He was raised to the peerage in 1998 and sits on the Liberal Democrat benches.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd