Compensation for a Miscarriage of Justice: The Real Test

Having a conviction quashed does not entitle you to compensation. That is the most important thing to understand about this scheme, and almost nobody is told it at the moment their appeal succeeds.

Compensation for a wrongful conviction in England and Wales comes from one place: section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988. The Government's own guidance puts it bluntly — outside those statutory provisions there is no entitlement to compensation for a quashed conviction.

Who can apply

The scheme covers two situations: a conviction that has been "reversed", or a person granted a Free Pardon.

"Reversed" does not mean every successful appeal. According to GOV.UK, you can apply where:

• your appeal succeeded and it was submitted 28 or more days after your Crown Court conviction, or 21 or more days after sentence in a magistrates' court
• your conviction was overturned after the Criminal Cases Review Commission referred it to the Court of Appeal
• you have been pardoned

Read that first point twice, because it is the gate that stops most claims. If your appeal was lodged in time, the scheme does not apply at all. It is built for out-of-time appeals, CCRC referrals and pardons — cases where something surfaced long after the appeal window had closed.

Reversal also covers a conviction quashed on an out-of-time appeal where a retrial ends in acquittal or is discontinued. The application route is for England and Wales; Scotland has a separate scheme and Northern Ireland claims go to the Department of Justice there.

The test you have to meet

This is where most applications fail, and it is worth being completely straight about it.

Section 133(1ZA) says that, for England and Wales, there has been a miscarriage of justice "if and only if the new or newly discovered fact shows beyond reasonable doubt that the person did not commit the offence."

Three things follow from that wording.

There must be a new or newly discovered fact. A point of law that was argued and lost, or a legal error by the trial judge, is not a new fact.

The standard is beyond reasonable doubt. The standard the prosecution had to meet to convict you now has to be met by you, in reverse.

What has to be proved is innocence, not doubt. It is not enough that the conviction was unsafe, that the evidence was thin, or that no jury should have convicted.

That test is demanding and it is meant to be. Many people whose convictions are quashed as unsafe will not meet it, which is no reflection on them or on their appeal.

No payment is due, either, if the failure to disclose the new fact was wholly or partly the applicant's own fault.

The two-year deadline

Section 133(2) gives you two years from the date the conviction was reversed or the pardon granted — not from the date you found out about the scheme, and not from your release date. Section 133(2A) lets the Secretary of State treat a late application as in time where there are exceptional circumstances, and the guidance is clear that not having known the scheme existed would not generally count.

How much can be paid

The amount is capped. Section 133A(5A) sets the overall limits for decisions by the Secretary of State:

• £1,300,000 where section 133B applies
• £650,000 in every other case

Those figures were raised by about 30% from £1 million and £500,000 by an Order that took effect in late October 2025. The previous limits had stood since 2008.

Section 133B is the ten-year rule. It applies where, by the time the conviction was reversed or the pardon given, the person had spent at least ten years in "qualifying detention" — custody under the sentence for that offence, detention under mental health powers based on that conviction, or remand in connection with it. Detention served concurrently for other offences does not count.

There is also a cap on one head of loss: under section 133A(6), compensation for lost earnings or earning capacity is limited, in any one year, to one and a half times median annual gross earnings, using the latest Office for National Statistics figures at the time of assessment.

How the decision and the assessment work

These are two separate stages, decided by two different people.

Stage one, entitlement. Under section 133(3) the Secretary of State decides whether there is a right to compensation at all. This is where the section 133(1ZA) test is applied.

Stage two, amount. If there is a right to compensation, section 133(4) provides for the amount to be assessed by an assessor appointed by the Secretary of State.

For the non-financial element — the suffering caused and the damage to reputation — section 133A(2) requires the assessor to take account of the seriousness of the offence, the severity of the punishment actually suffered, and the conduct of the investigation and prosecution. Section 133A(3) allows deductions for conduct of the applicant that caused or contributed to the conviction, and for other convictions and their punishments. Under section 133A(4), in exceptional circumstances the assessor can decide only a nominal amount should be paid.

What happens after you apply

Applications go to the Miscarriage of Justice Applications Service, online or on a paper form sent by post or email.

Supporting documents matter. The list depends on whether your appeal was heard in the Crown Court or the Court of Appeal, and missing paperwork delays things. If you do not have the documents, the Applications Service may be able to obtain some from the Criminal Appeal Office or the relevant Crown Court — worth knowing if your solicitor's file has long since gone.

Cases where the prison sentence was over four years are prioritised; the rest are dealt with in the order received.

What this means for you

• Check the appeal timing first. If your appeal was lodged within the normal time limit and succeeded, the scheme is not open to you. That is the quickest way to find out whether there is anything here at all.
• Find the date of reversal and count forward two years. That date, not your release date, starts the clock.
• Be honest with yourself about the test. "My conviction was unsafe" and "a new fact proves I did not do it" are very different statements. The scheme pays only on the second.
• Identify the new fact in one sentence. If you cannot say what it is and what it proves, an application is unlikely to go anywhere. If you can, that sentence is the heart of the claim.
• Gather the court paperwork. The Court of Appeal judgment or Crown Court order, and the documents behind it, are what the decision is made on.

A quashed conviction with no compensation is a bitter outcome, and a common one. Knowing which side of the line a case falls on is better than finding out two years later.

Talk to Case Review UK

Case Review UK provides independent written assessments of criminal cases by senior UK lawyers and barristers, including Post-Sentence Appeal Assessment and CCRC Application Guidance. We look at what your appeal paperwork says, whether the scheme is open to you on its face, and whether there is a new or newly discovered fact capable of meeting the statutory test. Fixed fee, no hourly billing, report in 7 to 14 days.

We are independent of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the court that dealt with the case. If there is nothing here, the report will say so plainly.

WhatsApp: +44 7417 361696 Email: enquiries@casereviewuk.co.uk

This article is general information about the law in England and Wales, correct at the date of publication. It is not legal advice on any individual case, and Case Review UK is not a regulated law firm or a substitute for a solicitor.