Legal Aid (Hansard, 17 February 1995)

§ Mr. John Marshall
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what is the cost of legal aid awarded to Mr. Bryce Taylor.

Mr. John M. Taylor
No money has been paid on account to the solicitors acting for Mr. Bryce Taylor under legal aid, and no final bill has been received.
846W

§ Mr. Boateng
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what steps he plans to take to ensure that every individual wishing to complain about treatment at the hands of the Legal Aid Board is automatically given the board's leaflet about its complaints procedures as soon as the complaint is drawn to the board's attention.

Mr. John M. Taylor
The Legal Aid Board does not require that complaints are lodged with it on a particular form. On receipt of a complaint—whether by telephone, letter, or on the form included in its complaints leaflet—the board takes immediate steps to resolve the problem. Where appropriate, a copy of the complaint leaflet is sent to the complainant but this would not be appropriate in every case—for example where the complaint has been satisfactorily resolved immediately over the telephone.

§ Mr. Boateng
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what mechanisms exist for setting and ensuring that Legal Aid Board staff responsible for assessing expert medical and other reports possess the necessary scientific or professional expertise.

Mr. John M. Taylor
The Legal Aid Board ensures through its quality management system, which includes detailed work allocation, supervision procedures and quality control mechanisms, that all work is allocated to' staff with the appropriate degree of training and experience to deal with it.

§ Mr. Boateng
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what mechanisms exist for setting and ensuring minimum standards for quality of expert medical and other reports in legally-aided cases.

Mr. John M. Taylor
Individual solicitors are responsible for obtaining expert medical and other reports in legal aid cases. The Legal Aid Board does not, itself, commission such reports. The board has introduced its franchising arrangements to ensure that there is a quality assured legal aid service available to clients. It is a mandatory requirement of franchising that all franchisees have documented procedures for using experts which include, among other things, clear criteria for selecting experts which must be followed and arrangements for checking opinions and reports when they are received to ensure they adequately provide the information sought.

§ Mr. Boateng
To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, what mechanisms exist to ensure that, where a legally aided individual makes a complaint about a particular Legal Aid Board official or office, that individual's application for legal aid will not be prejudiced.

Mr. John M. Taylor
The Legal Aid Board has adopted "justifiability of decision-making" as one of its guiding principles and seeks to ensure that all decisions are taken objectively and are uninfluenced by prejudice of any kind. To ensure that it meets this objective, it has obtained accreditation as a quality assured organisation under BS EN ISO 9002, formerly BS 5750. The board uses its quality management system—which includes detailed and comprehensive supervision, work allocation and quality control procedures—to ensure that decisions in individual cases are made objectively.
847W