§ Mr. GarnierTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what evaluation he has made of the Law Society's research undertaken by Sheffield University, and the Law Society's response to his Department's research undertaken by KPMG into conditional fees; and if he will publish his conclusions and the evidence underlying them. [42584]
§ Mr. HoonThe Law Society's research into conditional fees and their response to the consultation paperAccess to Justice with Conditional Fees are being analysed at the moment, together with all the other responses to the consultation paper. We intend to publish our response to the public consultation as soon as the analysis is complete and we have considered the results.
§ Mr. GarnierTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many firms of solicitors in England and Wales undertook legal aid work in each of the last five years for which figures are available; what was the average income from legal aid, excluding VAT and disbursements, of those firms in each of those years; and how many of these firms were not included in his answer to the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Mr. Pickthall) on 28 April 1998,Official Report, column 65. [42598]
§ Mr. HoonThe information requested is not available in the form requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. All solicitors' firms undertaking legal aid work are required to hold a Legal Aid Board account number to which payments are made. However, the payment records do not provide an accurate figure for the number of firms doing legal aid work, since a single firm may have more than one office, and therefore account number.
Information on the range of payments for various categories of legal aid made by the Legal Aid Board to solicitors offices are published in its annual report each year. In the 1996–97 annual report, Table General 5 relates to payments made, within each range, to the number of solicitors' offices by each legal aid area. The payments are inclusive of VAT and disbursements as these are not recorded separately.
However, it should be noted that the tables published prior to 1996–97 will not be comparable with those published in preceding annual reports as the tables were revised to make them more relevant to current developments in legal aid (paragraph 4.5 to Section 4 of the 1996–97 report refers). As of 1996–97, the area is the legal aid area in which the solicitor's office is situated.
§ Mr. GarnierTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many barristers in England and Wales undertook legal aid work in each of the last five years for which figures are available; what was the average income from legal aid, excluding VAT, of those banisters in each of those years; and how many of those banisters were not included in his parliamentary answer to the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Mr. Pickthall) on 28 April 1998,Official Report, column 65. [42599]
§ Mr. HoonThe information is not readily available and could be provided only at disproportionate cost. Payments made to counsel for legal aid work are recorded by the 71W Legal Aid Board by range of payments and category of work only. This means that the statistics contained in the Board's Annual Report do not accurately reflect the number of banisters undertaking legal aid work, as each barrister may appear in a number of categories and ranges of payment.
Information on the range of payments for various types of legal aid made by the Legal Aid Board to counsel are published in its annual report each year. In the 1996–97 annual report, Table General 9 relates to payments made to counsel (Table General 7 in preceding annual reports). The payments are inclusive of VAT and disbursements as these are not recorded separately. However, it should be noted that the tables published prior to 1996–97 will not be comparable with those published in preceding annual reports as the tables were revised to make them more relevant to current developments in legal aid (paragraph 4.5 to Section 4 of the 1996–97 report refers).