Legal Aid (Hansard, 13 November 1989)

§ The Attorney-General

The Government have been considering eligibility for legal aid in relation to particular proceedings in the course of reviewing the arrangements4W for civil and family justice. They now propose to carry out a general review of all the financial conditions for the grant of legal aid.

It is essential to view need in relation to particular types of proceedings in order to identify those who are prevented by lack of means from bringing or defending proceedings, where it is otherwise reasonable that they should. It is not sufficient for this purpose simply to estimate the percentage of the population who might be eligible for legal aid.

The Government have already considered the arrangements for legal aid in care proceedings and action has been taken in the context of the Children Bill to provide for the waiving of the merits test or the means test in suitable cases. Consideration is now being given to legal aid in relation to civil proceedings as improved procedures are introduced following the civil justice review. We have established the need for certain immediate changes which are being announced today.

They are as follows:

(a) assessment of children's means separately from those of their parents;
(b) an additional capital allowance for pensioners on low incomes who rely heavily on their savings;
(c) an increase, in respect of personal injury cases, of the upper (eligibility) limits for disposable income and capital from £6,035 to £7,000 and from £6,000 to £8,000 respectively.

Their net annual cost is estimated to be in the region of £5 million. Other legal aid limits will also be increased in April in the usual way.

The Government intend to bring these measures into effect in Great Britain in April 1990. Similar improvements to the legal aid financial conditions will also be made in Northern Ireland, although the legislative arrangements there will mean that they will take longer to bring into effect.

Further changes will depend on the outcome of the review of the financial conditions for legal aid which the Lord Chancellor is setting up. The review will look at all aspects of the financial conditions, including the upper (eligibility) limit, the lower (free) limit, the amount of contribution payable and the statutory charge, as well as the machinery for assessing means and enforcing the payment of contributions.

The review will begin in January 1990 and is likely to complete its work in two or three years. It will explore the possibility of examining individual applicants' means in relation to the likely cost of different kinds of proceedings for the purpose of determining eligibility. It will consider the availability of legal expenses insurance and the position of those who proceed without legal aid.

In due course it will extend to criminal legal aid and to family proceedings, where eligibility is higher because individuals' means are generally separately assessed. It will keep in step wih the programme of work on family law, jurisdiction and procedure announced by the Lord Chancellor on 6 December 1988 during the passage of the Children Bill. The review will extend to legal advice and assistance—the green form scheme—in criminal and matrimonial matters. It will also consider the system of uprating the financial conditions generally.

The review will be conducted by a working group of officials from the Lord Chancellor's Department and the Legal Aid Board, with advice from the Department of Social Security and elsewhere as appropriate. The Scottish Office and the Scottish Legal Aid Board will participate 5W fully in the group on questions of equal application to Scotland. Consultation will be undertaken at appropriate stages.

The review will be undertaken in addition to the regular limited studies which the Government conduct each year for the purpose of uprating the legal aid limits.