§ Lords Amendment: No. 108, in page 47, line 42, leave out "fund or".
§ Mr. TaverneI beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said Amendment.
§ Mr. SpeakerWith that Amendment we are taking Nos. 109, 113, 116 to 119, 126, and 184 to 191.
§ Mr. TaverneThese Amendments alter the arrangements for the collection of contributions ordered to be paid by a legally aided person towards the cost of legal aid. Responsibility for collection is transferred from local authorities and the Law Society to clerks to justices. 889 The change is made, and is thought desirable, because of objections by the Law Society against being given this responsibility in the case of legal aid in magistrates courts, and also because of representations by the Association of Municipal Corporations against responsibility being played on local authorities in the case of proceedings in the higher courts.
The effect of Amendments Nos. 108, 109 and 126 is that the Secretary of State for Defence will remain responsible for collection in the case of appeals to or from courts martial, but in other cases the authority responsible for the collection will be the clerk to the magistrates court in which the proceedings take place, or from which an appeal is brought, or by which a person is committed to a superior court, or, if the person appears, or is brought before a superior court without being committed, the clerk to the magistrates court nominated for the purpose by the superior court.
Amendments Nos. 116 and 117 are intended to ease the burden which will be placed on clerks to justices by providing that contributions should be recovered not only as a civil debt, but also in the same manner as arrears are recovered under affiliation orders.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Subsequent Lords Amendments agreed to.