§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Attorney-General how long the London area of the Legal Aid Board takes to authorise solicitors to appropriate costs which have been agreed and paid in legal aid cases and where only the authority of the Legal Aid Board is needed for solicitors doing legal aid work to transfer such moneys from a client account to an office account.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThis information is not collected at present and the Legal Aid Board has no immediate plans to collect it.
§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Attorney-General how long the London area of the Legal Aid Board takes to pay damages to legally aided litigants where those damages have been deposited with the board.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThis information is not collected. If the hon. Member has a particular case in mind, perhaps he would write to the Lord Chancellor.
§ Mr. FraserTo ask the Attorney-General what is the average time taken by the London area of the Legal Aid Board to pay legal aid bills of costs for which allocaturs and bills have been sent to them.
§ The Attorney-GeneralInformation is not available in the form requested. The Legal Aid Board monitors the payment of bills according to time targets set out in its annual report. A comparison of the performance of the London area office with the targets is set out in the table.
Time taken between receipt and payment of bills Legal Aid Board 4 weeks 6 weeks per cent. per cent. Target (per cent, of bills paid) 82 95 London area office performance for September 1990 69 90