§ Mr. Wheelerasked the Attorney-General whether the Government will take steps to ensure that lawyers undertaking legally aided work are paid as the work is done.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe Government have decided to institute a scheme that will provide a measure of improvement in the existing arrangements by enabling payments on account to be made in cases that have been running for nearly two years or longer. The scheme will operate only for the present financial year and claims will have, therefore, to be made promptly. Further discussions will be held about longer term arrangements, in association with a consideration of ways of improving control of the cost of civil legal aid. I shall be personally responsible for the discussions and associated work. No new expenditure overall is required for this scheme because expenditure will simply be brought forward into 1982–83 from future years. It is the Government's intention to submit a spring Supplementary Estimate for approval. The sum will be charged to the Contingency Reserve and will thus not add to public expenditure.