§ Lord Sefton of Garstonasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they will consider the introduction of a salaried system of legal aid especially in personal injuries cases. [HL2240]
§ The Lord Chancellor (Lord Irvine of Lairg)The Access to Justice Bill will replace the current legal aid scheme with two separate schemes, both administered by the Legal Services Commission: the Community Legal Service for civil matters, and the Criminal Defence Service for criminal matters. For the latter, the Government believe that, in addition to contracting with private lawyers, the Legal Services Commission should be able to employ lawyers directly to offer services to the public. Introducing a mixed system of private and salaried lawyers will broaden choice of types of suppliers and introduce a healthy element of competition. The Government have no current plans to employ salaried lawyers to provide services under the Community Legal Service, but have taken the power to do so in order to maintain flexibility for the future. So far as personal injury cases are concerned, the Government believe that conditional fee agreements will provide a suitable source of funding for at least the great majority of cases and that, therefore. only few of them may continue to require public subsidy.