State support for victims of terrorism

Background Compensation schemes

The Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme (CICS) was established in 1964 to provide state compensation for victims of violent crimes who are unable to pursue compensation through other means. It became a statutory scheme with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Act 1995, leading to the creation of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) in 1996. In July 2020, the Ministry of Justice announced that it would review the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme in order to make it “simpler and more transparent.” One of the proposals in the consultation was the creation of “a standalone scheme for victims of domestic and overseas terrorism to improve awareness of the support on offer and ensure applications are processed as rapidly as possible”.

The Victims of Overseas Terrorism Compensation Scheme (VOTCS), which came into force in 2012, was designed to compensate victims of terrorism overseas. It is also administered by the CICA.

Exceptional Assistance Measures for Terrorist Incidents Overseas

In a 2008 ministerial statement, the government stated that, since 2004, it had offered specific consular assistance, called the Aftercare Plan, to British victims of terrorist incidents and their families. The scheme was not a form of compensation but a means through which the government could “recompense for actual expenditure, following a terrorist incident overseas, where there is no other available source of financial assistance”. In 2008, the policy was renamed “Exceptional Assistance Measures for Terrorist Incidents Overseas”. In 2010, it was updated to include British nationals who had not taken out travel insurance prior to travelling.

The Exceptional Assistance Measures allow government ministers to activate special assistance such as medical evacuation, payment of immediate medical expenses, and repatriation to the UK.

The Home Office Victims of Terrorism Unit

The Home Office Victims of Terrorism Unit (VTU) was created in 2017 to coordinate support for victims of terrorism in the UK and British citizens abroad. It works across central government, and with the emergency services, local government structures and victim support organisations when needed, to ensure that victims and survivors receive effective, timely and comprehensive support. The VTU defines victims and survivors of terrorist attacks as any individual who has been impacted by a terrorist attack including:

those physically injured, those mentally impacted, those who witnessed or were bereaved by an attack, as well as those who have supported affected individuals in a personal or professional capacity…

The VTU has provided funding to organisations such as Victim Support and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust, to provide emotional and practical support to victims and survivors of terrorism. In its Counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) 2023, the government stated that, since 2020, over £1.6 million had been “provided to third sector and healthcare providers to increase the practical and emotional support for victims and survivors of terrorism”.

Recent developments

In March 2025, the VTU published the results of a review of the support available to victims and survivors of terrorism, “to comprehensively assess the gaps in support and identify ways to meet the evolving needs of victims and survivors”. The review found that:

the current support needs to go further; to better communicate the support available to victims and survivors, help navigate them through it, and to ensure that the support available addresses the varying needs and unique experiences.

It identified ways of improving the support package for victims and survivors of terrorism such as through:

streamlining the support journey, reducing the need for victims and survivors to coordinate their own support, and providing clarity on the support they are eligible for, at a time when they are processing trauma.

In March 2025, in response to the review, the government announced new plans for “strengthened support” for victims and survivors of terrorism. Under the plan, the government will set up a new dedicated support hub for victims and survivors to offer support “in the immediate and long-term aftermath of a terrorist attack”. Other recommendations from the VTU review “will also be progressed”. These include:

• enhanced communications to victims to bolster awareness of the support package available to them
• improving the support available for children and young people, to ensure they do not fall through the gaps

The government also announced a consultation on a new National Day for Victims and Survivors of Terrorism. The consultation closed on 11 June 2025.

In May 2025, a motion on whether the government will consider using frozen Libyan assets to provide compensation to victims of the Irish Republican Army terrorism was debated in the House of Lords. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Lord Collins of Highbury, stated:

…Responsibility for compensating victims specifically for the actions of the Gaddafi regime rests … with the Libyan state.

…[T]here have been calls to use these assets to compensate victims of Gaddafi-sponsored IRA terrorism. But, as in the UN resolutions, those assets must be used in line with our UN obligations, which are specifically for the future benefit of the Libyan people.

In July 2025, the government announced the launch of a commercial competition to establish a dedicated “24/7 support hub” to “provide specialist, trauma-informed care to victims and survivors of terrorism”. The tender is supported by terrorism reinsurer, Pool Reinsurance.

Further resources Parliamentary questions

• Libya: IRA, 21 November 2023 | UIN 2803
• Terrorism: Victims, 17 January 2024 | UIN 10101
• Libya: IRA, 24 January 2024 | UIN 11276
• Terrorism: Victim Support Schemes, 3 September 2024 | UIN 4095
• Terrorism: Victims, 18 March 2025 | UIN 39365
• Topical questions, 31 March 2025, vol 765 c20
• IRA: Libya, 22 April 2025 | UIN HL6706

Parliamentary debates

• Terror Attacks: Government Financial Support, HC Deb 6 Dec 2017 c432WH
• Frozen Libyan Assets: Compensation for Victims of IRA Terrorism, HL Deb 1 May 2025 c119GC

Government publications

• Counter-terrorism strategy (CONTEST) 2023, 18 July 2023
• Review of support for victims and survivors of terrorism, 26 March 2025