HL Deb 17 February 1986 vol 471 cc497-8WA
Lord Campbell of Alloway

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they are proposing to make any changes in the operation of the legal aid scheme.

The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hailsham of Saint Marylebone)

The Government have been considering a number of possible changes to the operation of the legal aid scheme. The Government will be laying regulations before both Houses of Parliament shortly to provide for the merger of the Area and General Committees of the Law Society. This was recommended by a report carried out by management consultants, and has been accepted by both the Government and the Law Society.

Regulations will be laid shortly to increase the capital eligibility limit for assistance by way of representation from £800 to £3,000. Regulations will also be laid shortly to enable solicitors and counsel to be remunerated for work done before the granting of a legal aid certificate in criminal proceedings in certain circumstances.

The Government also accept that the following improvements should be made at an appropriate time in the future:

  1. 1. Changes in the operation of the statutory charge to allow postponement of the charge where the court orders a sum of money to be used for the purchase of a house, and to allow the charging of interest on all outstanding charges.
  2. 2. The extension of the advice and assistance scheme to allow solicitors, in some circumstances, to visit the housebound.
  3. 3. Extension of ABWOR to proceedings under Section 47 of the National Assistance Act 1948.
  4. 4. Extention of ABWOR to applications under Section 28(6) of the Children and Young Person's Act 1969.

These changes can only be made as resources become available. Legal aid cannot be looked at in isolation from the many other competing demands on public expenditure. Since 1979, net expenditure on legal aid has doubled in real terms. This is a clear indication of the importance which the Government attach to legal aid. But against the background of increasing cost of legal aid the Government have decided to reduce the allowances given against income for dependants in assessing eligibility for civil and criminal legal aid and advice and assistance from the present 50 per cent. above those applicable for supplementary benefit to 25 per cent. above. Regulations will therefore shortly be laid before both Houses of Parliament.

Finally, I have written to the chairman of the Legal Aid Advisory Committee in response to the committee's 34th Report. A copy of my letter has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses of Parliament.