§ Mr. AltonTo ask the Attorney-General what representations he has received about the Lord Chancellor's proposals to raise arbitration figures to £1,000 and to include claims for personal injuries in this figure; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Attorney-GeneralI have received no such representations.
My noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor has, however, received numerous representations both prior to and since the publication of the report of the review body on civil justice (Cm 394), which recommended that the arbitration limit be increased to£1,000. The existing limit of £500 was set in 1981 and the new limit, which will have effect from July 1991, restores the financial level below which cases are automatically referred to arbitration to a realistic level, enabling the small claims procedure to continue to provide an efficient and accessible means of redress for small litigants.
The civil justice review body also found that the cost of legal representation in small personal injury cases was often disproportionate to the amount in issue, and recommended that they be dealt with under the small claims arbitration procedure. The Lord Chancellor has received representation on this issue from the Law Society, the Trades Union Congress and the National Consumer Council. The Lord Chancellor is currently considering the way forward in the light of the civil justice review's recommendation and the representations that have been made.