CICA Privacy Notice
Source: gov.uk (2025-07-02)

This document explains how we handle the information we hold about you.

Purpose

This privacy notice tells you:
- what we will do with your personal information
- how you can get a copy of your personal information
- what you can do if you have any concerns about our use of your personal information
Who we are and what we do

CICA is an Executive Agency of the Ministry of Justice. We collect and process personal data for the purposes of administering the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5d00c89ee5274a3cfa8a4ffe/criminal-injuries-compensation-scheme-2012.pdf), the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/243508/9780108512124.pdf) (together ‘the Compensation Schemes’), and the Hardship Fund (https://www.gov.uk/financial-support-victim-of-crime).

The Ministry of Justice is the data controller for the personal information we hold. Under the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes, we receive and determine compensation claims from people who have been physically or mentally injured in England, Wales or Scotland by violent crime.

Under the Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme, we receive and determine compensation claims from people who have been physically or mentally injured overseas in a terrorist incident.

Under the Hardship Fund, we receive and determine claims from low paid workers who are temporarily unable to work due to a violent crime in England or Wales, and whose injuries do not fall within the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.

Read more information about the Criminal Injuries Compensation Schemes (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/criminal-injuries-compensation-a-guide), Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/victims-of-overseas-terrorism-compensation-scheme-a-guide) and the Hardship Fund (https://www.gov.uk/financial-support-victim-of-crime).

About personal information

‘Personal information’ is information about you as an individual. We know how important it is to protect your privacy and comply with data protection laws. We will safeguard your personal information and only disclose it where it is lawful to do so.

Types of personal information we process

We only process personal information that is relevant to the exercise of our functions. This can include:
- your name, address and contact details
- your date of birth
- information about the incident in which you were injured
- information about your injuries and their impact (health information)
- criminal offence data about any criminal convictions you may have
- financial information about your earnings (if you are claiming loss of earnings) and other expenses you have incurred due to your injuries
- photographs of your injuries and video recordings (for example, CCTV footage of the incident)
- your identification documents
- payment details (including card or bank information)
We may obtain information from you (or your representative if you have one), the police, medical practitioners and other third parties in order to assess your application.

Purpose of processing and the lawful basis for processing

Under data protection law, we must have a ‘lawful basis’ for collecting and using your personal information. There is a list of possible lawful bases in the UK General Data Protection Regulation. You can find out more about what is a lawful basis on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

The lawful basis we rely on may affect your data protection rights which are described further below. You can find out more about your data protection rights and the exemptions which may apply on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Our lawful basis for processing personal information is the performance of a public task, which is to administer the Compensation Schemes and the Hardship Fund. This means we have to collect and use your information to carry out a task laid down in law, which the law intends to be performed by an organisation such as ours.

The extent to which we need to share and obtain your personal information will be determined on a case-by-case basis according to what is reasonably necessary to determine your claim. As consent is not the lawful basis on which we process your personal information, you cannot withdraw your consent to the processing of personal information if you wish to continue with your claim. However, you can withdraw your claim at any time before payment is made and, in those circumstances, we will only retain the small amount of personal information described in the section below titled ‘storing your information’.

We will use the personal information we collect only for the purpose of processing your application, to check on the level of service we provide and as otherwise required by law. We compile and publish statistics showing general information but not in a form which identifies anyone.

Improving our service

We’re responsible for finding ways to improve our service. An important part of this is asking applicants for their views and opinions. To do this we conduct research. We might ask you to participate in this research - this is voluntary. We’ll use the information you provide to try and improve our services. If you agree to participate, you will receive further information about the process and you can withdraw at any time. We won’t share your information with any other organisations for research purposes unless you agree to it first.

Who the information may be shared with

We need to share the personal information we process with you and with other organisations. Where this is necessary we will comply with all aspects of data protection law. As well as members of our own staff, we have to disclose your identity and details of your application to the police (and, in some cases, prosecuting authorities) to obtain information we need to assess the application. This will include getting details of any criminal convictions held by you.

We will usually also have to disclose your identity and some application details to your doctor or other health professionals and obtain from them sufficient evidence of your injuries to allow us to assess what level of compensation should be awarded. This can include medical records from your GP and/or other treating practitioners and the commission of expert medical or psychological reports. In most cases you will be expected to provide this evidence but in some circumstances we may obtain it on your behalf.

We may also need to share details of your application with other third parties, such as your employer, Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs, tracing services or another relevant government department, local authority, or agency. We may also use fraud prevention agencies for the purposes of verifying your identity and preventing crime, fraud and money laundering. Such disclosures will be made in accordance with data protection law.

Storing your information

We will keep personal information contained in our case files in line with our retention policy. This means that information relating to an application will be retained for a designated number of years from the date of closure. The precise length of time depends on the nature of the application. Routine case files will normally be held for 3 years from the date the application is finalised or, if the application relates to a child, until the child turns 21.

Our legal functions require us to retain some personal information on each application beyond the destruction date. This is necessary so that we can identify duplicate applications, prevent fraud, and assess any request that is made to re-open an application on medical grounds or where the applicant has subsequently died of their injuries. The data we retain includes your name, address, date of birth, incident date, case reference and case outcome. As our lawful basis is the performance of a public task, the right to erasure does not apply and we are unable to destroy this information.

Our telephone service

We offer a telephone service to those who want to apply over the phone or tell us about a development in their claim. Telephone calls to our Customer Support Team are recorded and kept for 120 days. Call recordings may be used for monitoring and staff training purposes during that period.

If you have an existing claim, we will add a written summary of the telephone call to your case file where it will be stored in line with our retention policy described above.

We may also seek user feedback to help us develop our telephone service.

How our digital service uses cookies

Cookies are files saved on your phone, tablet or computer when you visit a website. When you use the service, we’ll set a cookie to remember your progress through this site. This cookie does not store your personal data.

The cookie is deleted when you:
- submit your application
- do not interact with the service for 30 minutes
- close your browser window
We also use cookies to:
- store information, if you create a user account
- measure how you use our service so we can update and improve it
- make sure we do not keep showing you the same notifications
- protect your security by stopping sites that pretend to be GOV.UK services from gathering your information
You can read more about how cookies are used (https://claim-criminal-injuries-compensation.service.justice.gov.uk/cookies) and how to manage cookies (https://ico.org.uk/for-the-public/online/cookies/).

Your data protection rights

Under data protection law, you have rights including:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

The right to erasure does not apply because our lawful basis for processing your personal information is the performance of a public task. We will consider requests for erasure on a case-by-case basis but it will not generally be possible to erase all your personal information for the reasons described in the section above titled ‘Storing your information’.

You are not generally required to pay a charge for exercising your rights. In rare cases, we may charge a reasonable fee for administration costs if a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you.

Request your personal data from CICA (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/request-your-personal-data-from-cica).

When we ask you for personal information

We promise to tell you why we need your personal information and ask only for the personal information we need and not collect information that is irrelevant or excessive. We will not share your personal information for commercial use or any purpose other than the administration of the Compensation Schemes, Hardship Fund and any associated lawful purposes.

How to contact us to ask a question

If you have any questions about the above issues or how your personal information is handled, you can contact us at:

Governance Team Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority 10 Clyde Place Buchanan Wharf Glasgow G5 8AQ

Telephone: xx-xxxx-xxxx

Outside the UK: xx-xxxx-xxxx

Relay UK (https://www.relayuk.bt.com/) (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 0300 003 3 601

Find out about call charges (https://www.gov.uk/call-charges)

Complaints

If you consider that your personal information has been handled incorrectly, please get in touch with us so we can seek to resolve your concerns. This does not affect your right to make a complaint (https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/criminal-injuries-compensation-authority/about/complaints-procedure) to us.

You can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office for independent advice about data protection or to make a complaint if you are unhappy about how we have handled your personal information. You can contact the Information Commissioner’s Office at:

Information Commissioner’s OfficeWycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF

Telephone: xx-xxxx-xxxx

ico.org.uk (https://ico.org.uk)