Press Releases pre-May 2010

The Legal Services Commission’s (LSC) Annual Report, published today, shows that, by working with dedicated service providers, LSC has continued to increase the number of people who received civil legal aid for a second year running. More people have got civil legal help than at any other time since the creation of the LSC in 2000.

Carolyn Regan, Chief Executive of the Legal Services Commission, said:

“I am delighted that the Legal Services Commission has funded over 83,000 more acts of civil assistance than in 2005/6. This means many more people are getting help with their problems. I am particularly pleased that this has been achieved at a time when both the LSC and the organisations providing services directly to clients have been undergoing transformation in order to provide legal aid in a more efficient, targeted and responsive way.”

The LSC met or exceeded 12 out of its 13 corporate targets for the last year. Highlights include:

• funding over 2.5 million acts of assistance overall



• working with civil providers to deliver nearly 800,000 Legal Help acts of assistance. Representing a 12.5% increase on 2005/06, this is our most successful performance to date



• working with Criminal Defence Service providers to deliver 1.6 million acts of assistance



• maintaining 100% coverage of duty solicitor schemes



• running a full 12-week consultation that enabled us to set out the way ahead for legal aid, and start to implement the transformation programme stemming from Lord Carter’s proposals



• continuing to raise quality and performance standards among legal aid providers



• increasing the number of providers who process their claims online by over 50% to 3,036



• opening our first Community Legal Advice centre in Gateshead in May 2007



• achieving 92% against our target of 88% on the national customer service score



• starting to transform our organisation to enable us to deliver the legal aid reform programme while successfully continuing with ‘business as usual’ e.g. the creation of a National File Centre in Jarrow to hold 75% of the more than 1 million civil case files that took up 15% of our total regional floor space. Not only has this created a more efficient system for transporting files between offices, it has also enabled us to reduce office costs such as shown by the relocation of staff from Red Lion Street to Tower Exchange in the Docklands. The move saved an initial £790,000 and lower rent and rates will save a further £975,000 a year.

Sir Michael Bichard, Chairman of the Legal Services Commission, said: “I am pleased to see the LSC and our partners delivering even more high quality advice in 2006/07 than ever before. At the same time, we continue to provide excellent customer service, with complaints at an all time low. I look forward to continuing to build on this success in the future.”

Media information

Daniel Kellingley   020 7759 0415

Notes to editors

1. Our national Customer Service Score measures our performance in key service areas such as how quickly we make decisions on applications, pay bills, respond to correspondence and complaints, and help legal aid clients and service providers on the telephone.

2. The ‘financial reports’ (towards the back of the annual report) contain more detailed technical information including the financial statements, which are audited by the National Audit Office.

3. Detailed statistical analysis of our work, including comparisons with 2005/06, can now be found on our website (on the same page as the annual report).

4. The annual report is published by The Stationery Office. It is available from their bookshops and costs £18.00 Both the LSC corporate plan and annual report are available on our website.