§ Lord Lester of Herne Hillasked Her Majesty's Government:
Further to the statement by the Lord Chancellor of 5 February (H.L. Deb., col. 810), whether they have decided to give effect to Sir Peter Middleton's proposal that there should be a separate fund to provide assistance for public interest cases, including those involving convention rights under the Human Rights Act 1998. [HL2897]
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)The issue of funding for public interest cases was discussed in the consultation paperAccess to Justice with Conditional Fees last year. I have concluded that a separate fund to provide assistance for public interest cases is neither necessary nor desirable. We can provide for these cases more effectively by building the concept of public interest into the fabric of the Community Legal Service Fund itself. This will ensure that the potential of every civil case to raise issues of wider public interest can be considered. Under the new Funding Code public interest cases will be a priority. Clause 9(2)(g) of the Bill obliges the Legal Services Commission to consider "the public interest" as a factor in framing the criteria in the code. Chapter 4 of the Consultation Paper on the code, published by the Legal Aid Board in January this year, discusses how this might be done. Cases that have a wider public interest are more likely to receive help under the code. They may not, for example, have to score as highly on other factors such as the prospects of success, although this is not, and cannot be, an open ended guarantee of funding.