I shall deal with that aspect in a few moments.

It is important to take some time at this stage to explain the conceptual change in the nature of the new scheme. Many people will accept that no amount of money can fully or properly compensate people for criminal injury, and that it is perhaps unrealistic to believe otherwise. There is no such thing as an "absolute" or "right" figure for the hurt suffered. Awards under common law damages are necessarily subjective, not objective. Even the courts are sometimes accused of inconsistency in the awards they make.

Our new scheme will no longer attempt that almost impossible task. It will continue to provide a tangible recognition of society's sympathy and concern for the blameless victims of crimes of violence. It will do so by making a payment related to the nature of the injury rather than to its effect on the victim. The new system will be based on the tariff or scale of awards under which injuries of comparable severity will be grouped into bands for which a single fixed payment will be made.

We are currently examining about 20,000 cases resolved by the board in 1991–92. That is one third of the cases that it resolved. The extensive case sampling exercise will help to decide how injuries should be grouped together, how many tariff bands there need to be, and what level of payment should be made for each grouping. Our intention is to set the tariff bands so that the average award under the new scheme is broadly the same as the average award under the current system.

I should point out that, in its first full year of operation, the board paid out £400,000 to 1,164 victims, whereas last year it paid nearly £144 million to more than 39,000 recipients. The vast Majority of awards were for less than £5,000, with more than 66 per cent. falling within the range £750 to £3,000. The average payment was £3,660.

The design of the new tariff will build on the existing matrix of cases, so allowing us to take full advantage of the collective and distilled experience and wisdom of the present board. The average claimant will receive much the same award as he or she would have received under the present scheme. Our tariff scheme will remain the most generous state compensation scheme anywhere in the world.

In response to several of the points that my hon. Friend made, I refer him to paragraph 8.2 of the board's most recent report, which shows the narrow financial band within which the present scheme operates. If my hon. Friend considers that, and thinks about the element of discretion, that should give him some reassurance that what we propose will build on the collective distilled wisdom gained from what the board has done. Clearly, our mapping exercise will deal with some of the problems that he has put before the House.

I maintain that our new system should be no less fair than the current one. It will ensure that people suffering the same injury receive the same award, which is often not the case now. The payments will still be very generous when compared to those of any other state compensation scheme. In addition, victims may, depending on the circumstances, also be able to look for help from social and other support mechanisms, such as medical and social care, and from unemployment, invalidity and other social security benefits; so victims will still get all the help that the state can reasonably provide.

I should make it clear that there is much further work to be done in drawing up the detail of the new scheme. I mentioned that we envisaged the rules on eligibility remaining broadly as before, but we are also looking carefully at administrative procedures, including the handling of police and medical reports, and at such things as how the body that will run the new scheme might best be organised and managed. I note that my hon. Friend mentioned that most pertinent point.

We aim to introduce the new scheme on 1 April 1994, but claims lodged before then will be resolved by the present board under the current arrangements. Claims lodged after that will be dealt with under the tariff scheme.

We are also determined to ensure that there should be a fair and equitable appeals system. We envisage a two-stage appeals process. The first would be a higher-level review of the papers by the scheme administrators. This should help to sift out frivolous or vexatious appeals and enable any obvious mistakes to be corrected quickly. Stage 2 would be to an independent appeals panel, which might include members of the medical, business, legal and other professions and groups. I am afraid that I cannot answer questions on points of detail involving precisely how the arrangement will work, but such matters will be dealt with in the white paper.

Of course, there will be an opportunity for the House to consider our proposals when the White Paper is published. It is fair to say that our proposals are not set in stone at this stage. We shall listen carefully to what people have to say. I should be delighted to receive any further input that my hon. Friend wishes to submit. I appreciate that he, like me, is restricted by time in his attempt to get all the detail into tonight's debate. We have already received papers from the chairman of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board and from the NAVSS, and we are considering their views most carefully.

I emphasise that we are determined to introduce the new tariff scheme early in 1994, so we shall work hard to settle the details by autumn this year, so that matters concerning communication, the publishing of details, guidance, training of staff and everything else that goes into bringing a complex new arrangement into being can be done effectively and efficiently.

In embarking on an attempt to improve the service to victims of crime, we too are conscious of the issues that my hon. Friend correctly put before the House. The central necessity is to focus on the preparation involved by way of the extensive mapping exercise. That is the way to take the best of what we have now, both in human and in financial terms, and to provide it in a more effective and efficient way to the victims of crime. At the end of the day, it is their interests that must be uppermost in our minds.

We must not forget the relative generosity of our scheme compared with anything else in the world. I am glad that our new scheme will be more effective and efficient, and will remain the best that there is.