§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many(a) legal practices and (b) solicitors in England and Wales were undertaking legal aid work in (i) 1990, (ii) 1995, (iii) 1999 and (iv) 2000. [130413]
§ Mr. LockThe Legal Services Commission and its predecessor, the Legal Aid Board have always made payments to solicitors' offices, not to individual solicitors, or practices. It is therefore not possible to provide details of the numbers of individual solicitors undertaking legal aid work. The statistical information collected also relates to the financial year rather than the calendar year. The numbers of solicitors' offices receiving payment for undertaking legal aid work during the years in question were as follows:
Number 1989–90 11,455 1994–95 11,062 1998–99 11,263 1999–2000 11,099
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many applications for legal aid were(a) accepted and (b) rejected in each year since 1990. [130416]
§ Mr. LockThe numbers of legal aid applications granted and rejected, in each year for which information is available, were as follows:
161W
Civil legal aid1 Assistance by way of representation 1 Accepted Rejected Accepted Rejected 1990–91 333,444 84,347 73,948 12,284 1991–92 339,306 100,030 67,505 12,870 1992–93 349,619 126,271 49,735 10,621 1993–94 335,422 125,716 26,503 5,553 1994–95 362,591 123,453 22,276 3,329 1995–96 356,138 124,947 19,473 2,646 1996–97 315,502 133,631 18,149 2,167 1997–98 285,959 133,735 17,991 2,052 1998–99 278,709 98,122 19,918 1,034 1999–2000 227,494 65,270 16,882 644
Criminal magistrates2 Criminal higher courts2 Accepted Rejected Accepted Rejected 1990 n/a n/a 7,883 3,981 1991 n/a n/a 6,885 4,650 1992 n/a n/a 7,579 4,569 1993 n/a n/a 10,567 4,796 1994 n/a n/a 12,998 5,591 1995 n/a n/a 14,203 6,377 1996 n/a n/a 13,795 6,710 1997 380,430 42,030 15,109 6,766 1998 423,314 42,058 15,772 5,887 1999 444,955 35,907 14,608 6,122 n/a = not available 1 Financial years 2 Calendar years
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what was the total amount(a) paid and (b) received in respect of legal aid, broken down by (i) costs recouped under orders for costs, (ii) value-added tax, (iii) savings on national insurance payments and (iv) other income in the last year for which figures are available. [130414]
§ Mr. LockThe Legal Aid Board (which was replaced by the Legal Services Commission on 1 April 2000) recovered costs totalling £318,366,000, overwhelmingly from matters dealt with in the civil courts. The Board paid costs to the opponents of funded clients totalling £2,229,000. It is not possible to separate out the proportion of either the receipts or payments that were paid under the orders for costs.
The Legal Aid Board was not required to account separately for VAT and some payment systems that it operated do not recognise VAT as a separate item. Since not all disbursements attract VAT, and not all solicitors and counsel are registered for VAT, it is not possible to calculate the amount of VAT that was paid out of, or into the legal aid Fund.
There are no national insurance savings that the Commission is aware of that had an effect on the Fund.
Other income to the legal aid Fund during 1999–2000 totalled £159,820,000. This includes such items as contributions paid by funded clients, moneys recovered through statutory charges placed on property gained or kept by funded clients with the benefit of legal aid, and interest on these charges.
§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department for what reason the Legal Aid Board was renamed; and what estimate he has made of the costs arising from this change. [130415]
§ Mr. LockThe Legal Aid Board has not been renamed. It was replaced on 1 April 2000 by a new executive non-departmental public body—the Legal Services Commission—established under Part I of the Access to Justice Act 1999. The Commission is charged with establishing, maintaining and developing two new services for the provision of publicly funded legal services—the Community Legal Service and the Criminal Defence Service. The Commission has also taken over the functions of the Legal Aid Board in relation to any cases being conducted under the provisions of the Legal Aid Act 1988. The appointments of the Chair and members of the Commission were announced on 17 December 1999 and 9 March 2000 respectively. However, costs directly162W attributable to the naming of the Legal Services Commission are: Design and development of logotype, including tender (£6,587.13); Regulations on usage of logotype (£6,431.95); Nameplates for Regional offices (£3,666.00); Internet domain name registration (£141.00); Corporate seal (£120.00).