§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much has been spent on setting up and maintaining community legal service partnerships in the current financial year; and which budget the funding comes from. [23297]
392W
§ Ms Rosie WintertonAs at the end of September, the Legal Services Commission had spent £1,881,500 in the current financial year on setting up and maintaining community legal service partnerships (CLSPs).
The funds allocated to the community legal service partnerships are:
£000 Partnership support fund (PSF) Spent so far 56.5 Allocated 900 The £900,000 allocated is made up of £400,000 from the Commission's grant in aid, and £500,000 from the Community Legal Service (CLS) Fund.
Total staffing costs at the end of September were £1,825,000. This figure relates to the totality of planning and partnership work, and includes some elements not related to CLSP development, such as the support for, and administration of, the Commission's regional legal services committees. As these various functions are so integrated with CLSP development it has not been possible to separate out the expenditure.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many(a) specialist help providers and (b) generalist providers are in operation; and how many specialist help providers were in operation when the community legal service was setup. [23299]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonAs at November 2001, the following numbers of providers were in operation:
- (a) Specialist: 5,463
- (b) General help: 302
- (c)General help with casework: 241.
At the time of the launch of the community legal service (CLS) in April 2000 only certain categories of work at what is now known as the specialist level were restricted to specialist suppliers, namely those with a licence granted under the Commission's general civil contract. Other work at what is now known as the specialist level was provided outside the contracted system. All legal help work—formerly known as advice and assistance—was contracted. It is therefore impossible to make a direct comparison between the position before 1 April 2000 and now. There were 5,286 contracted providers of all types in place in April 2000.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, how many community legal service partnerships are operating without a specialist help provider in each category of law. [23298]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe information in the form requested is not readily available and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost. The Legal Services Commission does not routinely collect information at national level in the terms this question asks.
Community legal service partnerships (CLSPs) do not deliver services. They bring together organisations offering legal and advice services, such as solicitors in private practice, citizens' advice bureaux, law centres, and local authorities, and other funders, providers and users 393W of legal and advice services. Partners act together to co-ordinate and improve access to, and delivery of, legal services and help to carry out need assessment, gap analysis and planning activity.
The Commission currently records data according to 'bid zones'. 'Bid zones' are geographical areas which form the basis of contracting decisions. Information is recorded highlighting areas where a high level of need has been identified, and indicating whether the need has been met, in order to measure progress against the Commission's objective to develop effective providers operating in those categories of law where a need has been identified. In many areas, there will only be a relatively low level of need identified for specialist categories. In these areas, services are often provided by family practitioners who are authorised to carry out work in other categories under what we call 'tolerances'. The process of assessing priority is a key responsibility of CLSPs.