HC Deb 30 March 1979 vol 965 cc845-6
845
§
Queen's Recommendation having been signified—
§
Resolved,
That, for the purposes of any Act of the present Session to amend certain enactments relating to legal aid and legal advice and assistance, it is expedient to authorise the payment out of moneys provided by Parliament of any increase in the sums so payable under the Legal Aid Act 1974 or the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1967 in consequence of—
- (1) provisions enabling assistance to be given to a person by taking on his behalf any step in the institution or conduct of any proceedings before a court or tribunal, or of any proceedings in connection with a statutory inquiry, whether by representing him in those proceedings or by otherwise taking any step on his behalf (as distinct from assisting him in taking such a step on his own behalf) provided the assistance is approved by an appropriate authority in accordance with regulations made for the purposes of those provisions;
- (2) provisions for securing that, where a party receives any such assistance or legal aid in connection with any proceedings and those proceedings are finally decided in favour of another party, the court by which the proceedings are so decided may make an order for the payment to the other party out of the legal aid fund of the whole or any part of the costs incurred by him in those proceedings;
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- (3) provisions for reducing in relation to a person receiving legal aid, his maximum contribution in respect of disposable income and his maximum contribution in respect of disposable capital;
- (4) provisions removing the requirement for regulations to secure that in computing the resources of an applicant for legal aid there shall be observed the rules set out in paragraphs 17, 18, 23 and 25 of Schedule 1 to the Supplementary Benefits Act 1976;
- (5) provisions enabling advice and assistance or legal aid to be given to a body of persons corporate or unincorporate which is concerned in a representative, fiduciary or official capacity.—[Mr. Thomas Cox.]