§ Mr. StewartTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland how often the Scottish Legal Aid Board asked(a) solicitors and (b) advocates to produce their files in (i) 1994 and (ii) 1995; and how often these requests were refused. [6129]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonThis information is not routinely gathered and detailed figures cannot be given. There were two large cases in 1995 where solicitors did not produce their files to substantiate their accounts. Both cases were taken to the auditor of court for taxation.
In 1994, a firm of solicitors was asked to produce a significant number of its files to substantiate charges being made to the legal aid fund. As they could not produce them, a liability to the legal aid fund for over 1,000 cases amounting to a sum in excess of £30,000 was extinguished.