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Legal aid Minister Jonathan Djanogly spent time with frontline staff advising members of the public when he visited Wandsworth Citizens Advice Bureaux.

The minister chatted to both staff and clients on his visit to bureaux offices in Tooting and Battersea, south London.

He sat in on welfare and housing advice interviews at the two sites.

Useful
Jonathan Djanogly said: ‘I’m keen to learn as much as I can about the different ways that legal aid services are delivered. So this visit was extremely useful.

‘I listened to advice being given by a welfare benefits supervisor and also a debt caseworker, who was helping a housing client.

‘I can see that there are some very committed people doing a lot of valuable work in the legal aid system.’

Wandsworth CABx hold four full-time LSC contracts. This enables it to provide specialist legal help in debt and welfare benefits.

In 2009/10 a total of 16,000 clients were seen by bureaux staff. This figure includes client visits to a third site in Roehampton.

Opportunity
The south London trip was an opportunity for the minister to learn more about the different ways that frontline services are provided.

It followed on from an earlier visit to Barking & Dagenham Community Legal Advice Centre on 27 May.