§ Mr. DismoreTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what restrictions on the use of QCs have been introduced(a) by Government Departments and (b) through legal aid funding, indicating in each case what savings to public funds he estimates will be made as a result; and if he will make a statement. [125533]
The Solicitor-GeneralI have been asked to reply.
Dealing first with (a), whenever a Government Department in England and Wales wishes to brief a QC to appear in court on a civil matter, a legal adviser of a designated level of seniority must seek a nomination from the Law Officers of a particular Queen's Counsel with the appropriate expertise. Each such nomination has to be approved personally by the Attorney General or by me before instructions can be sent. This procedure has been 625W in operation for some years. It means that QCs are the exception, not the rule. The two First Treasury Counsel are both junior counsel and they will advise and represent the Government without Queen's Counsel in many of its important civil cases. In addition there are four panels of junior Counsel whom Departments are expected to use for the majority of the Government's civil litigation.
With regard to legal aid funding, in civil matters, Queen's Counsel should not be instructed by a solicitor acting for a publicly funded party unless prior authority has been given by the Legal Services Commission either in the certificate or subsequently by the Area Director. The Legal Services Commission issues Guidance on the use of Queen's Counsel and on making an application for prior authority.
In criminal matters before the higher courts, judges have powers to allow a Queen's Counsel for the defence in the following cases: (a) on a charge of murder; (b) where it appears to the court making the order that the case is one of exceptional difficulty, gravity or complexity and that a Queen's Counsel is required in the interests of justice; or (c) where the prosecution is being brought by the Serious Fraud Office. The Lord Chancellor has been consulting on changes to this rule to control the use of QCs more strictly. The consultation is substantially concluded and he will shortly be laying regulations which will have the effect of restricting the use of QCs to cases where the prosecution have instructed a QC or Senior Treasury Counsel or the defence case is exceptional when judged against other offences of the same type and the defence case for that defendant involves substantial, novel or complex issues of law or fact which in the opinion of the court could properly be handled by a QC. Judges will be asked to endorse a written application stating how the criteria are met. This will allow the effect of the change to be monitored.
It is impossible to predict how many Government cases in the future will justify the appointment of a QC or, consequently, what cost savings are made by the operation of these procedures.