Ceredigion Preseli MP Ben Lake has raised the case of a constituent - who was wrongly imprisoned for 5 years but has been denied compensation – to the Prime Minister in the House of Commons.

During Prime Minister’s Questions on 9 July, Mr Lake urged the Prime Minister to meet with him and his constituent, Brian Buckle, to address the injustice of those wrongfully convicted of a crime being denied compensation.

Mr Buckle, a father and former construction manager from Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, became a convicted sex offender in 2017, after being sentenced to serve 15 years in prison after a jury at Swansea Crown Court had found him guilty of 16 counts of historical child sex abuse.

After five years and four months imprisonment, the Court of Appeal overturned his conviction in September 2022 and ordered a retrial.

The retrial took place in May 2023, which resulted in unanimous not guilty verdicts being returned by the jury in just over an hour.

However, despite his acquittal after having spent years in prison, Mr Buckle has been denied compensation due to a change in the law in 2014 which introduced new eligibility test that has been described by Judges of the European Court of Human Rights as “a hurdle which is virtually insurmountable.”

Mr Lake said that this injustice continues to have a “devastating impact” on Mr Buckle and his family.

The change to the compensation regime brought about in an amendment included in the Anti-Social Behaviours, Crime and Policing Act 2014 means that victims of miscarriages of justice must also prove they are innocent ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ of crimes of which the courts have already found them to be not guilty.

In practice, the eligibility test means that only 6.6 per cent of miscarriage of justice cases receive compensation.

In March 2025, Ben Lake MP led a debate in Westminster Hall on this issue and called on the UK Government to address this injustice as a matter of urgency by adopting the reforms published by the Law Commission, including proposals that alter the requirement to prove innocence on the ‘balance of probability’ to receive compensation.

Speaking at PMQs, Ben Lake MP said: “My constituent Mr Brian Buckle is a victim of a miscarriage of justice.

“He was wrongfully imprisoned for over five years before being exonerated at retrial.

“Despite a jury unanimously finding him not guilty of the crimes for which he was imprisoned, and the devastating impact this injustice continues to have on him and his family, his application for compensation was denied due to a 2014 change to the law that requires those who have been wrongfully imprisoned to prove their innocence “beyond all reasonable doubt”.

“This is an almost impossible hurdle to overcome.

“So would the Prime Minister consider meeting Mr Buckle to discuss his case, and lend his support to APPEAL's campaign for fair compensation for those who have been victims of a miscarriage of justice?”.

In his response, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Can I thank him for raising this particular case which saw a grave miscarriage of justice. In relation to the statutory test for compensation, this has been raised in the House before and I’ve undertaken to have a look at it.

“I know he’s working, I think, with the Minister responsible on the particular case that he raises.”