§ Mr. LetwinTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department under what circumstances it is possible for a person earning £90,000 per year to obtain legal aid. [82570]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonSuch a decision would be very rare. Under the Access to Justice Act 1999, public funding (formerly called legal aid) is provided under the Community Legal Service (CLS) and the Criminal Defence Service (CDS). CLS funding, which covers civil proceedings, is only available for cases within the scope of the scheme subject to a statutory means test and funding assessment. Under the present system a person with an income of £90,000 per year would rarely qualify for civil public funding. It could be possible in cases involving public family law, such as care and supervision orders, child assessment orders, emergency child protection orders; and Mental Health Review Tribunals.
Any individual charged with an offence and appearing before the courts can receive publicly funded representation without reference to their means where it is in the interests of justice for help to be granted. When the CDS was introduced in April 2001, the means test for criminal legal aid was abolished. It was replaced with a power for judges in the Crown Court to order a convicted defendant to pay some, or all, of the costs incurred in defending him, by way of a Recovery of Defence Costs Order.
Thus a person with a high income might receive public assistance, but can be required to repay that support. Typically a court will exercise that power if the defendant is found guilty. A defendant found not guilty will almost certainly not have to repay legal aid costs. But this represents no effective change on the position before April 2001. It has always been, and remains, the case that a defendant found not guilty, who pays for his own defence, will almost certainly have the costs of his defence repaid by Government to the extent that such costs accord with legal aid rates.