Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether HM Courts and Tribunals Service has a procedure for escalating cases where a compensation order has remained wholly unpaid for more than two years despite repeated enquiries from the victim.

There is no specific escalation process for cases where a compensation order has remained unpaid for more than two years. However, HMCTS takes the recovery and enforcement of all financial impositions very seriously and remains committed to ensuring impositions are paid. The courts will do everything within their powers to trace those who do not pay and use a variety of sanctions to ensure the recovery of criminal fines and financial penalties.

Court-imposed financial penalties are enforced as a whole, with payments distributed according to a statutory order of priority. This ensures the compensation is paid first to victims, followed by the victim surcharge, before any payments are applied to fines or other financial impositions.