MP wins debate on unpaid compensation for terror victims

Published on 20/05/2011 19:09

A SCOTTISH MP has helped secure a debate into why the Ministry of Justice has failed to honour a commitment to pay compensation to British victims of terror attacks overseas.

Gregg McClymont, the Labour MP for Cumbernauld, Kilsyth and Kirkintilloch, is one of the sponsors of the debate next Tuesday into how 37 families promised compensation by the UK government have still not received a penny, more than a year on from the pledge being made.

In April 2010, the previous government passed legislation to set up a compensation scheme for British victims of any future terror attack abroad. When the legislation was passed, 37 survivors of terror attacks from 2002 onwards received a letter jointly signed by two secretaries of state stating they would also be entitled to a one-off payment last year.

Mr McClymont said: "It is very important that MPs highlight the deliberate inaction of the Ministry for Justice. It is shameful for the Secretary of State for Justice to even contemplate acting so unjustly."

Diane Murphy, a survivor of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, accused the government of ignoring the victims of terror.

She said: "As survivors of the Mumbai terrorist attacks we deplore the fact that the British government has failed to take any interest in us after our repatriation.

"It has never sought to know about our recovery or our needs. It has not offered any help either financially or otherwise and continues to ignore the pleas from survivors, their families and the bereaved families of those who did not survive."