Commentary on provisions of Act Section 10: Victims payments
Section 10 requires the Secretary of State to establish, by regulations subject to the negative resolution procedure, a scheme of payments for individuals injured in the Troubles (subsection (1)). This is further to the commitment set out in paragraph 28 of the 2014 Stormont House Agreement to find a way to provide a "pension" for those most seriously injured in the Troubles.
	Under Subsection (2) the first such regulations must be made before the end of January 2020 and come into force before the end of May 2020 - in practice this means that the scheme should be operational by that later date.
	Subsection (3) provides that regulations made under subsection 1 may include specific criteria for eligibility to receive such a payment, including:
	Nature or extent of injury (for example, setting a threshold for entry to the scheme);
	How, when, or where the injury was sustained (for example, whether the injury was sustained through the individuals own fault, or what time period the scheme covers);
	Residence and nationality; and
	Whether or not an individual has been convicted of an offence (for example, this could be linked to how the injury was sustained to exclude individuals convicted of an offence connected with the incident in which they sustained their injury from the scheme).
	Subsection (4) allows the regulations to provide for costs incurred during the making of an application under the scheme to be reimbursed.
	Subsection (5) allows the regulations to make provision: determining the size of payments under subsection (1); for payments for periods before the Act was made (for instance back payments); for when payments would need to be reduced (for example where the applicant is already in receipt of similar payments) or repaid (for example in cases of fraud); and how the payments are to be treated by other legislative schemes, such as social security benefits.
	Subsection (6) requires that the regulations must provide for backdated payments to be payable to individuals who are eligible for the scheme who make an application within a period specified in the scheme (which must be at least two years). The payments those individuals receive are required to reflect the amount that would have been payable to them had the scheme existed since December 2014 (when the Stormont House Agreement was agreed).
	Subsection (7) enables the enables the regulations to make provision for various practical matters, including administration of the scheme (including creation of its administrative body), its funding from the Northern Ireland consolidated fund; evidential matters; information sharing between public authorities (for the purpose of assessing claims); the application process, reviews and appeals of decisions; and support to be given to applicants such as information, advice and assistance.
	Subsection (8) provides that the regulations can confer discretion on a person. This might, for instance, allow the scheme administrator to make discretionary decisions in special circumstances such as terminal illness or other special cases.
	Subsection (9)(a) allows the regulations to amend legislation made by an Act of Parliament or Northern Ireland legislation. This is expected to be used to make amendments to relevant connecting legislation such as existing social security legislation or the Freedom of Information Act 2000. Subsection (9)(b) allows ancillary provision to be made in respect of Welsh and Scottish primary legislation.
	Subsection (10) requires the Secretary of State to have regard to advice from the Commissioner for Victims and Survivors for Northern Ireland in making the first set of regulations.
	Subsection (11) is self-explanatory.