Witness expense claim form guidance

General guidance

Witness Expense Claims forms should be completed and returned, using either the freepost envelope provided or by sending the claim form to:

The Court Witness helpdesk phone number is 0845 300 5770.

We will deal with your claim as quickly as possible and we aim to pay within 30 days of receiving your form.

You cannot claim for attending court if you are:

• a police officer or special constable employed by the PSNI (including officers on maternity leave, on paid or unpaid special leave or on a career break) and you are appearing in your official capacity
• a prison officer in Northern Ireland appearing in your official capacity; or
• an inmate of a prison or other institution where you are in custody

Section 1 - Your contact details

Please ensure your name, address and daytime phone number on the form are correct.

You must sign and date the declaration on the claim. If you do not, we cannot pay you and will return the form for you to sign and date it. If someone else is filling in the form for you, they must sign the declaration and explain their relationship to you.

You must bring your claim form to court with you and ensure that a PPS Staff Member or PSNI Officer signs and dates the form and gives their contact details, within the box entitled “Declaration”. Failure to obtain an appropriate signature may lead to a delay in payment.

Section 2 Subsistence allowances

Day subsistence – applicable to ordinary witnesses only

Pre-set Subsistence allowances are paid to compensate for the cost of refreshments and are based on the total number of days you attended court as well as the amount of time you spent at court and travelling to and from court each day.

• Attendance lasting up to five hours £2.25
• Attendance lasting between five hours and 10 hours £4.50
• Attendance lasting over 10 hours £9.75

Please note: We will pay you the appropriate allowance amount automatically when you give the following information:

• The dates you attended court and the total number of days. You can only claim for those dates that you were at court giving, or waiting to give, evidence. If you decided to stay at court after you had been released (in other words, you have finished giving your evidence and have been told by the court that you are no longer needed), you cannot claim any costs for that time.
• The amount of time you spent at court and travelling to and from court each day. There are three rates of day subsistence allowance and these depend on the amount of time you are away from home or work. Please enter the number of days for each band.

If you make your own arrangements to stay in a hotel overnight because you could not otherwise get to court in time in the morning or get home on the same day, you will be entitled to a fixed amount. There are different rates for hotel accommodation in different parts of the country (see below). This allowance should cover the cost of your accommodation and also help with the cost of meals and refreshments.

If we book your accommodation for you, we will pay the actual cost of bed, breakfast and evening meal (where available) direct to the hotel. In these circumstances you will only receive the personal incidental allowance.

If your booking did not include an evening meal, you will receive the night subsistence allowance and the personal incidental allowance.

If you stayed with friends or relatives overnight, you will only receive a night subsistence allowance.

Please note that we will not pay for phone calls, drinks, newspapers or other minor expenses that you have during your stay at a hotel. You must pay these costs yourself direct to the hotel.

If you stayed at a hotel overnight, you will have to give the number of days and, if you arranged your own accommodation, the address where you stayed and reason why you needed to stay overnight.

Overnight allowance

• Attendance overnight in Belfast, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool £95.00 (ordinary witness) or £85.25 (professional witness)  
• Attendance overnight elsewhere £65.00 (ordinary witness) or £55.25 (professional witness)

Plus (ordinary witnesses only)

• Night subsistence allowance £21.00
• Personal incidental allowance £5.00

If you are an ordinary witness and you stay with family or friends, you will only receive the following single payment.

• Night subsistence allowance £25.00

Section 3 Travel Costs

Public transport

PPS will repay in full your rail, bus, coach and tube fares at standard class rates.

Car

If you use your own vehicle, we will pay you 25p a mile. You will have to include the following information on the claim form.

• The total number of miles you travelled to and from court.
• Your reasons for claiming the higher rate (see below, if this applies)

If you give a lift to another witness who also has to attend court or to a person authorised to come with you to court, we will pay you an extra 2p a mile for the first passenger and 1p a mile for every other passenger. To claim this, you will need to include:

• the name of any passengers; and
• the number of miles each of them travelled with you

In very unusual circumstances, if you can show that you had to use your own car instead of public transport (for example, because there was no public transport, or because it saved you a considerable amount of time and money, or because you are disabled or elderly), we may pay you a higher rate of 45p a mile. You will need to prove to us that you needed to use your own car to be eligible for the higher rate.

If you were a passenger in someone else’s vehicle and the driver was not a witness or a person approved to come with you to court, you can claim the mileage allowance. If the driver was a witness or approved person coming to court with you, they can claim a passenger allowance on top of their own mileage claim.

Motorcycle       

Similar rules apply if you use your own motorcycle. We will pay you 23.8p a mile. In very unusual circumstances, we may pay you the higher rate of 25.4p a mile if you can show that you needed to use your own vehicle instead of public transport.

Bicycle

If you travel by bicycle we will pay you 20p a mile.

Parking

We will normally only pay parking charges if you can prove that you needed to use your own vehicle. You must provide receipts. Please note that under no circumstances can we pay any parking fines that you may get while attending court.

Taxi

We will only pay the cost of taxi fares or other hired vehicles in an emergency, or if you are ill, disabled or elderly, or if you had no other available method of transport. You will need to give us the following information:

Whether you travelled by taxi or hire car, and the reason why.

What the cost was. You must attach receipts to support your claim. (Please note that we will not pay for the cost of a taxi to wait while you are at court.)

Other transport

If you plan to use some other form of transport, contact your VWCU Case Officer to discuss your travel arrangements. The Case Officer can book travel arrangements (flights, hotels etc.) on your behalf in order to save you from incurring these costs and then reclaiming them.

The VWCU can assist in determining what services and expenses are applicable

Section 4 Loss of earnings

If you are employed – Ordinary Witnesses only

If you are employed, your employer must allow you to take time off work to attend court as a witness. If you lose pay while you are at court, we will pay you an allowance towards the basic salary you lose. These payments are tax-free.

There are limits to the amount we can pay and these depend on the length of time you have to be absent.

If you decide to stay at court after you have been released, we will only pay you until the time that you would have reached home or returned to work if you had left court when you were given permission to leave (released).

Please note the following:

• If you take annual leave to attend court and you do not lose pay, we cannot pay you an allowance for loss of earnings if you have not had any actual financial loss.
• We cannot pay you for overtime you may have worked or other bonuses you may have earned if you had not been at court.
• When you have filled in the claim form, you must give it to the person in charge of your payroll so that they can complete Section 4 and sign the declaration.

They will need to tell us:

• your job title
• how many days you were absent from work, divided between half days (up to four hours) and full days (over four hours); and
• the net earnings (after deductions for tax, National Insurance and so on) you have lost

Your employer will need to sign the declaration to confirm that the information they have given is correct, and they will need to provide proof of your employment such as the firm’s stamp, or an attached letterhead or business card.

Your employer should then return the form to you so that you can sign the declaration on the front of it.

If your employer does not take any basic pay from you because of your absence, you cannot claim this allowance.

Please note that you cannot claim compensation for your employer.

The most we will pay you for lost earnings is:

• for an absence from work of up to four hours £33.50
• for an absence from work of over four hours  £67.00

Section 5 Loss of earnings 

If you are self-employed – Ordinary Witnesses

If you are self-employed and you will lose earnings for the time you attend court, you can claim an allowance for the loss, by completing Section 5 of the claim form.

The amount payable will depend on the length of time you have to be absent you’re your work and are based on pre-set limits for each day you are required to attend court.

You will need to tell us:

• your job title
• how many days you were absent from work, divided between half days (up to four hours) and full days (over four hours); and
• the gross earnings (before deductions for tax, National Insurance and so on) you have lost

You are required to provide acceptable proof of your self-employment such as:

• a printed business letterhead with your full name and business name printed on it
• a letter from your accountant, the HMRC or a similar agency to confirm that you are self-employed
• a copy of your subcontractor’s certificate issued by the HMRC
• a letter from the company for which you are currently subcontracting to confirm that you are self-employed.

We may ask you to provide proof of your lost earnings. Please treat any payments we make as business receipts for tax purposes.

Reimbursement is on the bases of actual loss or within pre-set limits for each day you are required to attend court, the most that can be paid for loss of earnings is,

• for an absence from work of up to four hours £42.95
• for an absence from work of over four hours £85.90

If you employed someone to cover your absence, you should complete Section 7 of the claim form.

Section 6 Compensatory allowance

Applicable only to professional witnesses

If you attended court in your professional capacity, you can claim a compensatory allowance by completing Section 6 of the claim form or the cost of employing a locum for the time you spend in court, by completing Section 7.

The amount payable will depend on the number of hours you were away from your practice or home to attend court and are based on pre-set limits for each day you are required to attend court as stated below

• Absence from your practice or home for up to two hours £83.50
• Absence from your practice or home for between two and four hours £117.00
• Absence from your practice or home for between four and six hours £174.00
• Absence from your practice or home for more than six hours £234.00

If you employed a locum to cover your absence, you can claim the cost of this instead of the compensatory allowance, by completing Section 7 of the form. Reimbursement is on the bases of pre-set limits for each day they attend court.

Section 7 Employing someone to cover your absence, a locum or childcare costs

If you pay someone to work or act for you in your absence or if you pay a locum or if you pay childcare costs while you are at court, you must ask the person you employed to complete Section 7 of the claim form.

All information requested on the form must be provided, along with their signature on the form to confirm that the details they have given are correct and to confirm how much you have paid them.

Any reimbursement made by the PPS is on the bases of actual receipts or within a pre-set limit of £67.00 for each day you are required to attend court.

You cannot claim for employing someone to cover your absence if you are also claiming loss of earnings.

Only in very unusual circumstances can you claim for employing someone to work in your absence or claim for childcare costs if you are also claiming loss of earnings. If you are claiming both, you must explain why on the form.

If you are a professional witness and you want to claim for employing a locum, you should ask the locum to complete this Section of the claim form.

Reimbursement is based on pre-set limits for each day you are required to attend court as stated below:

• for an absence from your practice for up to two hours £89.00
• for an absence from your practice of between two and four hours £125.00
• for an absence from your practice of over four hours or if you have necessarily booked a locum for more than four hours £250.00

Section 8 Other costs

Applicable to Ordinary Witnesses only

If, as a result of attending court, you have had other costs not covered on the form, please provide details in Section 8 of the claim form.

You will need to provide receipts to support your claim for these costs. Any reimbursement made by the PPS is on the bases of actual receipts or within a pre-set limit of £67.00 for each day you are required to attend court. The appropriateness of anything claimed under Section 8 will be considered on an individual basis.