§ 7. Mr. Manningham-Bullerasked the Attorney-General what saving of expenditure in this financial year and in the next financial year is expected to result from the postponement of the full operation of the Legal Aid and Advice Act.
§ The Attorney-GeneralNo great saving of expenditure is to be expected in this financial year during which only expenses preparatory to operating the whole Act in the forthcoming year would have been incurred and this preparatory work will still, in the main, be necessary to provide the service which is not to be deferred.
The Law Society are amending their Scheme so as to carry out only that part of the Act which is not deferred, namely, that relating to proceedings in Supreme Court. The estimated saving in a full year after the amended Scheme comes into operation is £1,000,000 out of £2,000,000, but if this Scheme does not come into operation till the 1st July, 1950, the estimate for the remaining nine months of that year is £750,000 out of £1,500,000.
The annual cost to the Exchequer of those parts of the Act dealing with criminal cases and the provision of legal advice was estimated to be £550,000 when the scheme was in full operation. The estimated saving in the next financial year through not bringing these parts into operation is estimated to be about £400,000.
With regard to legal aid in civil cases, the saving through only bringing into operation those parts of the Act dealing with the provision of aid in proceedings commenced in the Supreme Court depends upon and must await the plan of the Law Society as to how best to administer this service in isolation from the other services now deferred.