Press Release
Legal aid reforms to deliver best value
Tuesday 28 November 2006
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) today outlined a major programme of reforms as part of moves to modernise the legal aid system.
'Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead', published jointly with the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA), details a plan for ensuring the sustainability of legal aid, so that publicly-funded civil and criminal legal services can continue to safeguard the rights of some of the most vulnerable people in society.
The plan flows from Lord Carter's year-long review of how legal aid services are purchased, and the consultation that followed. Lord Carter’s work highlighted the need for a more sustainable system in order to maintain civil services – such as advice and representation for people with welfare, debt, housing and domestic violence problems.
At the launch of 'Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead', LSC Chief Executive Carolyn Regan said:
"The commitment legal aid providers bring to their work is evidenced by the huge response we received to our consultation on the Carter proposals – more than 2,300 submissions. These, and the consultation events we held around the country, have provided valuable insight into the best way to introduce the needed reforms. We believe that the fundamental direction recommended by Lord Carter is right but the response to the consultation has significantly influenced our thinking on the detail of different schemes and the timetable for change.
"We want a legal aid system that continues to safeguard people's rights while providing value for the taxpayer, but we must also ensure it provides new business opportunities and fair reward for good quality, efficient service providers."
The LSC and the DCA have endorsed Lord Carter's key recommendation to move payment for legal aid services from a traditional system of hourly rates to one of best value tendering based on quality, capacity and price. To allow providers time to adapt their businesses to a market-based approach, there will be a transition period where they will be paid fixed and graduated fees for different types of work.
Carolyn Regan acknowledged that the reforms represented major challenges for service providers but said they were necessary to preserve access to justice.
"Our legal aid system is one of the best funded in the world, and the work of dedicated legal aid providers is fundamental to social and legal justice. But our budget comes from the taxpayer and is not unlimited. We will be working with providers to implement these reforms. The LSC will also need to become more efficient in how we deliver legal aid if we want to avoid restricting access to it.
"What we are announcing today is an integral part of a wider package of legal aid reforms. Lord Carter's work was about how we pay for services. It is aligned with the Community Legal Service Strategy we launched earlier this year which sets out what civil legal services we intend to buy to meet client needs. Now we have a clear way forward for legal aid reform, we will be progressing our plans for the Preferred Supplier scheme which will set out who we buy services from and will establish new quality standards for providers. We will be saying more about this soon.
"We will continue to engage with our providers, beginning with further consultations on family fee schemes in early 2007 and the new boundary areas for police station work in February."
The key changes outlined in 'Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead' include:
- Introducing best value competitive tendering for criminal legal aid services (consultation will take place in summer 2007) from October 2008 (initially proposed for 2009)
- Introducing a 'unified contract' for civil legal services in April 2007, starting with standard terms to bring law firms and NfP agencies under the same contract conditions.
- Revised standard fees for magistrates' court work, which include an element of travel and waiting, will be introduced in main urban areas from April 2007 (initially proposed for all areas from this date)
- Introducing a revised graduated fees scheme for Crown Court advocates from April 2007. Crown Court litigators graduated fees to be introduced in October 2007 (initially proposed for April 2007)
- Introducing a single graduated fees scheme in the Crown Court for both litigators and advocates, that will be subject to best value competitive tendering, by October 2008 (initially proposed for 2009)
- Fixed fees for police station work to be introduced in October 2007 (initially proposed for April 2007) and these to be set according to new boundary areas to allow for sensitivity to local conditions (initial proposal was to set fees by Criminal Justice System area)
- Implementing revised Care Proceedings Graduated Fees (consultation will take place in early 2007) in October 2007 (initially proposed for April 2007)
- Implementing revised graduated fees for Family Law – Private work (consultation will take place in early 2007) in October 2007 (graduated fees initially proposed for April 2007)
- The replacement for Tailored Fixed Fees for civil legal services will be implemented from October 2007 for both solicitors and for the not-for-profit sector (initially proposed for April 2007)
Media information
Richard Shand - Tel: 020 7759 0491
Gary Spink - Tel: 020 7759 0493
Notes to editors
An electronic copy of 'Legal Aid Reform: the Way Ahead' is available from the LSC's website. It can be found under both the CLS > Consultations and CDS > Consultations sections.
A media summary is available from the Related Documents area on this page.
Last updated: 29 December 2006