§ 3. 35 p.m.
§ Mr. W. T. Williams (Warrington)I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to make provision to establish neighbourhood law centres to provide legal aid and advice services.
In the 25 years since the Legal Aid Fund was set up, a great deal of advice and assistance has been given to persons who otherwise might have been prevented from seeking justice in the courts and from obtaining legal advice. But the time has come when, by reason of the inflationary pressures with which we are all faced, many people increasingly are being left outside the legal aid limits and find it impossibe to have the assistance and advice which formerly were open to them.
For that reason, there have grown up especially in the poorer parts of our community, a number of neighbourhood law centres. As of now we have some 12 such centres in London, one in Cardiff, and one in Manchester. There are prospects of other law centres being set up in Birmingham, Luton, Coventry and other large conurbations.
The reason why these services have grown arises from the fact that the large areas of law which are now not covered by legal aid have given rise to large numbers of people who never can obtain the services of private solicitors, and law centres have been set up voluntarily in the middle of areas which perhaps might properly be described as the deprived areas of our country.
They are easily accessible to the people of the areas in which they are found because they are open in the evenings and at weekends so that working people do not have to lose money visiting them during the day. By reason of their pattern of work, they have set up the practice of visiting sick and disabled people or mothers with children at home and in that way they have been of great assistance to persons who otherwise would be deprived of legal advice or representation in court because they were unable or in some cases unwilling to seek other legal advice.
447 Many people, especially poorer people, are frightened at the idea of going to a professional man's office, but they have learned not to be frightened of going to the law centre, often set up in a busy area with a shop front on the main High Street.
I said that these were voluntary organisations that had been set up by interested people to meet a need. I think that it is now generally accepted by all sections of the community that the work they do is of great assistance. Indeed, recently my noble Friend the Lord Chancellor made available £50,000 to help the five law centres which have run into financial difficulties.
However, I submit that the time has come when we should seek more properly to formalise the position of the neighbourhood sources of supply and, indeed, the right to exist in their present form.
The situation often arises that law centres, dependent as they are upon grants in many cases from local authorities, find themselves in difficulty if, by reason of their duties, they have to oppose the local authorities on behalf of some under-privileged person. The result has sometimes been—the five law centres to which the Lord Chancellor has now made grants are examples—that the centres 448 having obtained grants from local authorities and later come into conflict with them, the grants have been withdrawn. The result has been not only a loss of service but, in many cases, privation for those whom they would otherwise have served.
Therefore, the purpose of my Bill is to provide by law that these law centres shall exist and have such assistance as they may need so that they can develop and carry out the work that they must do, which is generally agreed to be of significance and importance, without let or hindrance and without fear of loss of support.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. W. T. Williams, Mr. Paul B. Rose, Mr. Bruce Douglas-Mann, Mr. Bryan Magee, Mr. William Molloy, Dr. J. Dickson Mabon and Mr. Julius Silverman.