§ Mr. John Fraserasked the Attorney-General what is the time taken in greater London to deal with an application for civil legal aid.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe only figures at present available for the length of time taken to deal with legal aid applications are those contained in the Law Society's annual reports, which are national figures based on a sample survey of a number of area offices. The latest available figure is for the financial year 1984–85, when the average time taken to issue a legal aid certificate was 39 working days. The figures for 1985–86 are still being collected. As the Law Society announced in its last annual report (35th Legal Aid Annual Reports, House of 101W Commons Paper 156, published January 1986), improvements are planned in the collection and presentation of these statistics, which should enable a more detailed breakdown to be given in future years. It will be remembered that in appropriate cases emergency certificates may be granted. These are normally processed within a matter of days at most and sometimes even over the telephone.