§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin)My honourable friend David Lammy, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State has made the following Written Ministerial Statement in the other place today.
With the agreement of the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs, the Legal Services Commission (LSC) has today published a consultation paper entitled A new focus for civil legal aid—encouraging early resolution; discouraging unnecessary litigation.
The main theme of the paper is to refocus the civil legal aid scheme away from contested litigation and to encourage early resolution of disputes. With a limited budget, we need to ensure that legal aid funding is targeted on the most needy cases and in the priority areas. The proposed changes are also required to update the LSC's funding code in the light of new initiatives, for example, changes in handling clinical negligence cases and the new Independent Police Complaints Commission. The changes to family legal aid complement the proposals announced in our Green Paper entitled Parental Separation: Children's Needs and Parents' Responsibilities.
The main proposals are as follows:
to restructure the levels of service for private law family cases to encourage the early and amicable resolution of family disputes wherever possible. A new level of service called Family Help will replace the existing three services, and will build upon the work already done through the FAInS (Family Advice and Information Service). This proposal will be piloted through FAInS providers before full implementation;
to introduce wider powers to refuse funding for divorce (ancillary relief) cases on the grounds that private funding mechanisms may be available, for example, using the value of the assets in dispute;
to introduce stricter controls over multiple and repeat applications in private law family cases and to limit funding to one certificate per client at any time;
to remove from scope low priority categories of case, such as legal help for drafting divorce and judicial separation petitions and changes of name;
60WSto revise the financial eligibility limits to achieve uniform income limits across all levels of service. The upper limit for qualifying for legal representation in court would be reduced, to the (lower) level for legal help, as adjusted for inflation. However, there should be appropriate safeguards and exemptions in place to ensure the most vulnerable applicants are protected;
to remove the current rule which disregards £100,000 of equity in an applicant's home in assessing financial eligibility for legal aid. Again, there will be exemptions for the most vulnerable clients;
in clinical negligence cases and complaints against the police, a requirement that redress is initially pursued through the appropriate complaints procedure before funding for litigation can be considered.
Copies of the consultation paper have been placed in the Library of both Houses. It is available on the LSC's website: www.legalservices.gov.uk.