Jack Straw cracks down on trivial prisoner legal claims
16 July 2009
Jack Straw has announced proposals to crack down on nuisance legal claims and new powers to seize money from prisoners.
New plans to crack down on nuisance claims pursued by prisoners through legal aid, as well as new powers to seize money from prisoners, were unveiled by Justice Secretary Jack Straw today.
Expenditure on prison law work has seen an almost 20-fold increase over the past seven years due to a significant jump in legal aid applications by prisoners. In 2008/09, £22 million in public funds was spent on the Criminal Defence Service for inmates, compared to just £1 million in 2001/02 – an unsustainable level of growth.
Government proposals to curb this growth include measures to remove access to advice and assistance on prison treatment issues from the Criminal Defence Service and a tightening of funding criteria.
Mr Straw said:
‘Prisoners need to know that the days of pursuing illegitimate and trivial claims – paid for by the taxpayer – are over. These reforms will put legal aid expenditure on a sustainable level and ensure that vital legal aid services are targeted at giving real help to vulnerable people for legitimate problems.’
The reforms will stipulate that the prison internal complaints process will need to be exhausted before publicly funded legal aid is granted to prisoners bringing a claim.
Mr Straw added:
‘These proposed measures will ensure that prisoners making complaints about trivial, unimportant things like poor TV reception or extended access to the prison gym will not get legal aid. These are common sense reforms and should see an end to prisoner exploitation of the legal aid budget.’
There will be exceptional circumstances in which prisoners will still be able to seek legal aid, for example where they have raised a serious complaint which, if founded, would indicate a serious failure in standards of treatment.
The proposed reforms on prison law will form part of a government consultation, which ends in October, with a view to begin introducing the reforms later this year. Reforms to prison law were announced yesterday by the Legal Services Commission and will see the introduction of new fixed and standard fees for solicitors representing prisoners. These fees will replace the current system of hourly rates and bring prison law remuneration into line with most other areas of legal aid.
The government also plans to bring in new powers to enable the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA) to pursue offenders to recover funds, in certain circumstances. This includes the power to pursue prisoners who subsequently receive compensation awards from the prison service or come into money by other means.
Mr Straw explained:
‘The cumulative effect of these powers will make it less enticing for prisoners to pursue frivolous claims for compensation. Not only will it be more difficult to do, but it should make them think twice about making claims in the first place knowing their new found funds could be taken for compensation paid to their victim.’
The government will seek to work with the Scottish government to pursue GB-wide application of these powers.
Notes to editors
- The Ministry of Justice proposes removing legal advice and assistance on prison treatment issues from scope of the Criminal Defence Service. Legal aid will continue to be available for prisoners where serious mistreatment is alleged and their case passes the merits criteria under the civil funding scheme. Legal aid is also available where important decisions are being made about discipline and parole.
- The Legal Services Commission published ‘Prison Law funding: a consultation response’ yesterday which sets out details of a new fee regime for the funding of prison law cases.
- Recovery of Criminal Injury Compensation from Offenders (Right of Recovery): Regulations to implement the compensation recovery powers under the Domestic Violence Crime and Victims Act 2004 are being prepared. The powers under the 2004 Act extend to all offenders (not only prisoners) and would enable recovery of compensation from offenders where their victim has received compensation from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.
- Media enquiries: call the Ministry of Justice press office on 020 3334 3536.