06 June 2007
Antwerp
Vera Baird set out the context of the Government's legal aid reforms at a conference of legal aid experts from around the world in Antwerp on 6 June 2007
Speaking to a conference of legal aid experts from around the world, Vera Baird set out the context of the Government's legal aid reforms. She discussed recent developments in criminal and civil legal aid, including the introduction of the means test and fixed fees in the magistrates courts and the opening of the first Community Legal Advice Centre in Gateshead.
Welcome and thanks
It gives me great pleasure to address you today at this important conference.
I am mostly here to listen but I will briefly outline to you the changes we have made to the legal aid system in England and Wales over the last two years. This has been an important period, setting out and setting in motion, some of the most radical reforms of the system since its introduction. On Friday Amanda Finlay from the Ministry of Justice and Carolyn Regan of the Legal Services Commission for England and Wales will be talking about these reforms in much greater detail.
Legal aid is fundamental to underpinning the justice system by enabling access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay for legal advice and representation. Legal aid forms a key part of the welfare state and is one of the proudest legacies of the progressive post-war Labour governments.
We want to secure this system, and make sure that it is helping as many people as possible.
To do this, we have been focusing mainly on how legal aid practitioners are paid. We have also looked at who is financially eligible for legal aid, especially criminal legal aid, and we have looked at, and acted upon, important research which shapes the way the Legal Service Commission delivers legal aid.
The overall cost of our legal aid scheme has grown considerably in recent years, up from around 2.2 billion euros to nearly 3 billion euros in 2004. What has happened is a 37% rise in criminal legal aid spending, compared to a 24% decline for civil and family spending, excluding asylum.
So the Government commissioned a review of the system which emphasised the need to deliver legal aid in a way that guaranteed value for money for the taxpayer, as with other public services. It pointed to the need for more efficient and effective criminal trials, and highlighted the way that a small number of criminal cases absorbed a hugely disproportionate share of the budget the one per cent most expensive cases in the Crown Court (where serious crime is tried by a jury) took up 50% of total Crown Court expenditure. It emphasised the targeting of resources where they are most needed: on civil and family advice and assistance, and to help as many people as possible within a fixed budget while ensuring no reduction in the quality of advice.
For particular areas of the system that needed reforming, the Government commissioned further reviews. The largest and most complex of these was the Legal Aid Procurement Review, led by Lord Carter of Coles. Lord Carter was tasked with producing a plan for buying and delivering legal services that would encourage:
- Good quality legal advice and representation for clients;
- A sustainable, effective and efficient supplier base;
- Value for money for the taxpayer; and which would
- Contribute to the efficient, speedy and proportionate operation of the justice system.
His report, published last July, recommended that we stop paying lawyers by the hour and of most cases instead pay fixed and graduated fees fees which are paid on sliding scales as the case progresses. Where already in place, these have capped costs and made them more predictable and encouraged providers to improve their efficiency. It would be followed by a move to market competition, in which suppliers would bid for groups of cases on the basis of quality, price and capacity.
Since publication of Lord Carter's report, we have consulted extensively with practitioners on our proposals. I personally went and met over a thousand practitioners around the country to listen to their views. After carefully considering the responses, we affirmed the principle of moving to market competition, following an interim period of fixed and graduated fees. However, we made significant adjustments to the detail, timing and sequencing of the proposals as originally consulted on, to take account of practitioners' concerns.
Implementation of our reforms started just two months ago, setting out an introducing the new fees systems. And further reforms are due later this year prior to full market competition in 2008/09, which will cover, since they drive efficiencies, all aspects of legal aid, not just the severely overspending ones.
CDS Act / Means Test
As well as looking at how we pay for legal aid, in one area lower level crime we have also revised the criteria for determining who qualifies financially for legal aid.
An Act of Parliament The Criminal Defence Service Act which came into force last October, ensures that defendants who can afford to pay for their criminal defence costs, do so.
The rollout of this new financial means testing scheme in the magistrates' courts will deliver annual savings of over 50 million euros.
We are currently evaluating the impact the first six months of the Act has had, including on practitioners and on the wider criminal Justice System.
As well as looking at how we pay for publicly funded legal services, and who is eligible to receive them, we have been looking at how these services are delivered.
Community Legal Services
We launched a strategy for the Community Legal Service i.e. non-criminal legal services in March 2006. This set out the intention to purchase and deliver services in ways that are clients-centred and make it easier for people in need to access services that fully address all their social welfare and legal problems. This contrasts with the current situation where specific practitioners are available in particular places through random history.
We are developing Community Legal Advice Centres and Networks. Broadly, the centres are designed to operate in urban centres, whereas the networks will link advice providers in rural communities. The LSC can buy only legal services. Local authorities now provide their own social welfare advice, but these services need to be supplied together. It should not be left to the troubled person to try to determine where he needs to go for precisely what kind of advice.
So, we are working with other funders, primarily local authorities, to commission services that will offer clients a full range of social welfare and family law services that will have the capacity to deal with a problem at the appropriate level, either literally at one Centre or on a networked basis, so that a person with problems can access all he or she needs by going through one door and just asking.
I opened the first CLAC in Gateshead in the North-East of England two weeks ago in an atmosphere of real optimism about the effectiveness of this, and there are plans for many more.
Conclusion
The last two years have witnessed a fundamental examination of the legal aid system in England and Wales which has informed our programme of changes. The coming years will see the implementation of the reforms we have set out. At their heart is the pressing need to put the system on a sustainable basis, so that it can help as many vulnerable and disadvantaged people as possible within a fixed budget.