§ Mr. HawkinsTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what consideration the Lord Chancellor has given to removing responsibility for the grant of criminal legal aid from the magistrates courts. [13087]
§ Mr. Jonathan EvansThis question highlights a difficult problem to which the Lord Chancellor has accorded high priority for a considerable time.
The Legal Aid Act 1988 vests in the magistrates courts the function of deciding on the grant or refusal of legal aid in criminal cases. In the performance of their functions the courts act independently of any Government Department.
In December 1993 my predecessor explained to the House that the Comptroller and Auditor General had repeatedly qualified his opinion on the Department's appropriation account because of material uncertainty as to whether the regulations governing the grant of criminal legal aid were being applied with sufficient rigour. He affirmed to the House that in no circumstances could any irregularity in dispensing public money be acceptable, and he recounted the measures that had been taken to rectify matters.
Among them was an examination of the feasibility of transferring the function to the Legal Aid Board. My predecessor explained to the House his reasons for declining to take that step at that time, and he undertook to give further consideration to that and alternative measures if other continuing action failed to achieve an acceptable result.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has again qualified his opinion of the 1994–95 appropriation account. During the last two years a number of statutory and administrative changes have been made, with the help and co-operation of the Legal Aid Board and the Justices' Clerks Society. The results have been closely audited both by my Department and by the National Audit Office. I am pleased to report that significant improvements in the levels of compliance with the regulations have recently become apparent. The improvement is marked enough to give reason to think that satisfactorily high levels of compliance could be achieved under the present arrangements, although further marked improvements are needed to achieve that result.
The Lord Chancellor has now proposed more fundamental reforms of the legal aid scheme as a whole, as described last year in the Green Paper "Legal Aid—Targeting Need". In these circumstances I do not propose any earlier change in the arrangements for the grant of criminal legal aid in the magistrates courts, so long as the improvement in compliance with the regulations is maintained. I will announce our intentions regarding the wider reforms when our consideration of the public responses to the Green Paper has been completed.