Press Releases pre-May 2010

The Legal Services Commission has today announced more detail on legal aid reforms which are designed to increase the numbers of people helped and ensure the system is sustainable for the future.

Following consultations with service providers, final fixed fee schemes for family, family mediation, mental health and police station work have been published today, together with changes to the Funding Code for child care proceedings.

The LSC has also announced a further consultation on duty solicitor slot allocation for police station and magistrates’ court work, a joint consultation with the Ministry of Justice on a proposed quality assurance scheme for publicly funded criminal advocates practising at Crown Court level and above and a six-week consultation on a new contract specification setting out how the new mental health fees will be reflected in the unified contract.

Carolyn Regan, LSC Chief Executive, said:

"These changes are part of the overall reform of legal aid and will build on the improvements in quality of advice and value for money that the LSC and providers have achieved over recent years. They will enable us to continue increasing the number of people helped by civil legal aid by making best use of the funding available.

"The new fixed fees will ensure greater value for money by moving from paying for inputs, like time spent and letters written, to outputs, like completed cases, which make a real difference for clients.  The fees will also help providers adjust the way they work as they prepare for the introduction of best value tendering, when they will be bidding on the basis of a fixed fee for a specified amount of work."

She thanked everyone who gave views on the fee schemes and funding code changes through consultation responses and meetings.

"We have listened carefully to the views expressed and have made changes as a result, both to the schemes themselves and to some of the timings for their introduction. I strongly encourage providers to respond to the consultations we have announced today so that we can continue to take their views into account."

Vera Baird QC MP, Minister for Legal Aid, said:

"Reforming the legal aid system is about getting the best possible service for clients and the best price for the taxpayer. It provides real opportunities for providers who are efficient and deliver quality services for clients.

"It is clear that many providers are already well along the road of re-organising themselves to take advantage of the changes. Efficient, good quality providers will prosper. We have consulted at every stage. We are grateful to those providers who have engaged positively and have thereby protected their own interests while helping us to shape better-tailored proposals. As always we have listened with care and we have made changes to detail, timing and sequencing and we will continue to listen as we implement legal aid reforms."

The LSC plans to begin the formal consultation process for best value tendering for criminal work later this year, with a view to phasing in its introduction from October 2008. Providers’ views will be gathered ahead of consultation to ensure they are reflected in early planning.

For civil work, the LSC plans to introduce best value tendering gradually from 2009, although we will proceed with small scale tendering exercises in the meantime as part of the development of Community Legal Advice centres and networks for integrated social welfare law and family services. This approach will help us ensure that we move towards a market in civil legal aid gradually and sustainably.
 
A summary of each of the individual announcements is available by clicking on the links at the bottom of this release.

Each of these schemes and consultations is detailed in papers available on the LSC’s website. Regulatory Impact Assessments and Q&A documents accompany each of the papers.

Today’s announcements follow publication of the Government’s response to the Constitutional Affairs Committee report on the legal aid reform programme. The response confirms the Government’s and the LSC’s intention to proceed with the reforms of legal aid set out in Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead.

Final fixed fee schemes for family and family mediation, (PDF, 18kb)
Final fixed fee scheme for mental health (PDF, 26 kb)
Final fixed fee scheme for police station work (PDF, 19kb)
Quality assurance for criminal defence advocates (PDF, 16kb)

Media information

For Civil announcements: Richard Shand (Tel: 020 7759 0491)
For Crime announcements: Dan Kellingley (Tel: 020 7759 0415)