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Under the current civil legal aid scheme, legal advice and assistance on most areas of law, including planning matters, is available to all clients, subject to the statutory tests of the client's means and the merits of the case.Legal representation is not usually available for planning inquiries as these inquiries are informal and inquisitorial processes for which legal representation is not necessary, unless there are exceptional circumstances. Under the current scheme, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. and learned Friend the Member for Rushcliffe (Mr Clarke), may authorise the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to grant funding in individual excluded cases, where the LSC first requests it. For exceptional funding to be granted at a planning inquiry under the existing scheme, the statutory tests of means and merits must be met. In addition, the Lord Chancellor expects one of the following criteria to be met:"there is a significant wider public interest (as defined in the LSC Funding Code) in the resolution of the case and funded representation will contribute to it; or""the case is of overwhelming importance to the client (as defined in the LSC Funding Code); or""there is convincing evidence that there are other exceptional circumstances such that without public funding for representation it would be practically impossible for the client to bring or defend the proceedings or the lack of public funding would lead to obvious unfairness in the proceedings." |