§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will break down the contract allocation for legal aid in London. [23295]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe number of solicitor and not-for-profit contractors in the London region, by category of law, as at the end of March 2001, was as follows:
Solicitors Not-for-profit Family 413 2 Mental health 59 4 Debt 23 22 Employment 39 22 Consumer 32 3 Housing 222 30 Welfare benefits 65 43 Education 12 0 Community care 23 0 Actions against the police 18 n/a Public law 9 n/a Immigration 266 37 Personal Injury 183 n/a Clinical Negligence 70 n/a Additional Tolerance 438 n/a Note:
Not-for-profit organisations are not awarded contracts for actions against the police, public law, personal injury, clinical negligence or additional tolerance work.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the civil legal aid budget was in(a) 1999–2000 and (b) 2000–01;and how much was spent on the different categories of law. [23300]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonIn the financial year 1999–2000 the Legal Aid Board was allocated provision of £1,182.1 million of the overall legal aid budget. There was not a predetermined sum allocated to civil legal aid. A net total of £768.5 million was spent on civil legal aid.
In 2000–01, the Legal Services Commission was allocated a provision for the Community Legal Services Fund of £781 million.
The Legal Services Commission, and the Legal Aid Board before it, spent the following amounts on civil representation in the different areas of law in 1999–2000 and 2000–01:
391W
£000 gross Category 1999–2000 2000–01 Family 390,895 421,094 Non-family Actions against the police 9,149 9,869 Clinical Negligence 43,229 52,779 Community Care 0 42 Consumer 39,617 37,031 Debt 5,865 6,329 Education 0 263
£000 gross Category 1999–2000 2000–01 Employment 1,368 1,542 Housing 36,641 37,861 Immigration and nationality 3,130 3,497 Mental Health 44 237 Personal Injury 261,623 267,060 Public Law 8,231 9,775 Welfare benefits 353 470 Miscellaneous 103,514 99,904 Non-family total 512,763 526,660 Overall total 903,658 947,754 Note:
Figures are stated gross since receipts cannot readily be allocated by category of law
In addition, net expenditure on other civil legal aid (legal help, assistance by way of representation and advice and assistance) was £231.7 million in 2000–01 and £208.4 million in 1999–2000. It is not possible to split this into comparable categories because category definitions changed between the two years.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many full legal aid practitioners there were in(a) private practice and (b) not for profit contracts in (i) 1999–2000 and (ii) 2000–01, broken down into (A) housing, (B) immigration, (C) employment, (D) welfare benefits, (E) education, (F) community care and (G) mental health. [23296]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe number of solicitor contractors by category of law at the end of March 2000 and March 2001, was as follows:
Category 2000 2001 Housing 733 673 Immigration 419 482 Employment 342 300 Welfare benefits 451 391 Education 31 40 Community care 25 38 Mental Health 322 349 The number of not-for-profit contractors by category of law at the end of March 2000 and March 2001, was as follows:
Category 2000 2001 Housing 113 115 Immigration 63 66 Employment 67 73 Welfare benefits 226 245 Education 4 4 Community care 3 0 Mental Health 10 6