Miscarriage of Justice Compensation

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Wednesday 19th March 2025 Westminster Hall

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

It is a real pleasure to serve under your chairship today, Mr Turner. I start by thanking the hon. Member for Ceredigion Preseli (Ben Lake) for securing this important and timely debate, and for the vital work that he is doing in support of his constituent Brian Buckle and, by extension, all victims of miscarriages of justice, including those convicted under joint enterprise. I also declare my interest as the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on miscarriages of justice.

As mentioned, earlier this month I held an event in Parliament to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the conviction of the Birmingham Six, and to remember the Maguire Seven and the Guildford Four, all of whom were wrongfully persecuted and convicted and all of whom fought tooth and nail for exoneration and justice. We heard some harrowing testimonies from Paddy Maguire, who was just 13 at the time of his arrest and suffered immense police brutality, and served time for his alleged handling of explosives. He and his family were eventually cleared of all wrongdoing, but the scars still run deep.

We hoped to hear from Paddy Hill, a titan of the justice world who dedicated his life not only to clearing his own name but to fixing the systemic issues that facilitated his wrongful persecution and prosecution in the first place. Unfortunately, he passed away in December last year, and I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute to his life and work. Paddy was wrongly imprisoned for 16 years following the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings in one of the most profound examples of injustice in the UK legal system. Following his release, he campaigned tirelessly for justice on behalf of other wrongfully convicted prisoners.

Paddy’s dedication and the widespread outcry after the wrongful convictions of the Birmingham Six, Guildford Four and Maguire Seven led to the establishment of the Criminal Cases Review Commission to prevent similar injustices. It was the first state body in the world established to help those convicted who claimed to be innocent. However, as we have heard, years of cuts and overlap in personnel with the police and courts undermined the CCRC’s effectiveness and independence.

There have been many recent scandals, including the outrageous case of Andy Malkinson, who served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit in what has been called one of the worst miscarriages of justice in UK legal history. In the months after leaving prison, Malkinson was reliant on food banks and universal credit, suffering from mental ill health due to his wrongful conviction. Last month, he was finally awarded a six-figure sum as compensation, but he is one of only a handful of people wrongly convicted of a crime to be compensated in recent years.

Since the 2014 overhaul of the compensation policy by the coalition Government, the bar has been raised insurmountably high for most victims of wrongful convictions. The result has been a virtual halt in all compensation payouts for these devastating miscarriages of justice. In reality, only those who can demonstrate that new DNA or alibi evidence proved that they did not commit the crime will receive compensation—an absurdly high threshold that reverses the burden of proof and does not reflect the principles of just law. In practice, it is impossible to achieve that for the vast majority of cases.

Between 2020 and 2023, the MOJ paid out less than £1.3 million in compensation to victims of miscarriages of justice, following a two-year period when not a single penny of compensation was paid out. To put that in context, between 2007 and 2009, a total of £20.8 million was paid out.

Following the Post Office Horizon scandal and the infected blood scandal, we know that public sympathy and support for victims of miscarriages of justice are strong. The principle of fair justice is universally held, but it should be the true rule, not the exception. We should not need significant political campaigns and interventions from the top for justice to be accessed. Our justice systems should work according to the law and the principles on which they were founded. Where wrongdoings are done, there should be checks and balances to ensure that justice is achieved.

Instead, we see significant backlogs in the CCRC, with only a trickle of cases making it through to the Court of Appeal. While the recent resignation of the chair is welcome, we know the systemic failings and the lack of funding reveal the need for a complete overhaul, not just a change of leadership. Cases like the Birmingham Four are still awaiting a decision on their application to appeal. People who believe they can prove their innocence and who have a right to appeal their convictions are rotting in jail, while the system creaks.

If the public are to have confidence in the underfunded and struggling criminal justice system, they need to have confidence that the processes are both fair and appear to be fair. Checks and balances are needed throughout the system, and they need adequate resourcing and support. Miscarriages of justice ruin lives, not just for the victims but for their families and loved ones. Compensation must be paid where it is due, and victims should not have to wait and fight for years to secure it when they have already been put through so much.

The British legal system is supposedly predicated on the principle of innocent until proven guilty. I hope today’s debate will help us get back to that principle and make sure that those who have been wronged have access to justice.