COMMONS AMENDMENT (Hansard, 14 July 1999)

§ The Lord Chancellor

My Lords, I beg to move that the House do agree with the Commons in their Amendment No. 9. This amendment inserts a new subsection in Clause 6. Clause 6 deals with the community legal service fund that will replace civil legal aid. The new subsection places a duty on me to inform Parliament whenever I make a determination about the net budget for the community legal service fund.

Clause 6(2)(a) requires me to pay to the legal services commission such sums for funding services as I determine are appropriate. In practice I will determine an annual net budget for the fund each financial year. This figure will be published as part of the Government's spending plans and in supply estimates, and laid before Parliament in that context.

It would also apply should it ever be necessary for me to change my mind during the course of the financial year and make a fresh determination increasing or decreasing the budget. There has been a great deal of debate, both in and outside Parliament, about the danger that an unexpected overspend on the criminal defence service could eat into the community legal service budget.

The Government have explained how, on the one hand, contracting will help achieve better value for the money spent on criminal defence services and make that spending more predictable, while on the other hand precluding large and sudden cuts in CLS spending. However, we have equally made clear that no responsible government could guarantee to ringfence a particular spending programme against any unforeseen contingency. In the interests of transparency, however, I undertook in this House to inform Parliament if I ever made a significant in-year change to the budget for the community legal service fund.

Following a suggestion made by the National Consumer Council, Amendment No. 9 places this undertaking on a statutory footing. It is yet another example of this Government listening and responding to those who, while they are genuinely supportive, and generally supportive, of our reforms, have particular concerns and come forward with sensible suggestions to meet them which we feel able to accept.

§ Lord Goodhart

My Lords, as the noble and learned Lord the Lord Chancellor well knows, our great concern—probably our greatest concern in the whole of the Bill—was the fact that increases in the spending on the criminal defence service which are not cost-limited might eat severely into the budget for the community 408 legal service which is cost-limited, and the total budget from the Lord Chancellor's Department which is also cost-limited.

That remains a severe worry and this amendment does not do anything of significance to prevent it from happening. Nevertheless, I accept that transparency is desirable in cases of this kind and I welcome the amendment so far as it goes. We are not in a position to press the matter further on the subject of our main worry.