2010 to 2015 government policy: legal aid reform
Updated 8 May 2015
Applies to England and Wales
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/2010-to-2015-government-policy-legal-aid-reform/2010-to-2015-government-policy-legal-aid-reform
This is a copy of a document that stated a policy of the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government. The previous URL of this page was https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/making-legal-aid-more-effective Current policies can be found at the GOV.UK policies list.
Issue
The scope of legal aid in England and Wales has expanded since it was first established and the scheme now costs over £2 billion a year.
Some issues that should not require any legal expertise to resolve - and could be better served with alternative methods - are contributing to this expense.
We want to reduce unnecessary costs and make sure that legal aid helps those who need it.
Actions
Legal aid reforms are set out in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
To make legal aid more effective we are:
- reforming the administration of legal aid so that it targets the highest priority cases and those who need it most
- encouraging the use of mediation to resolve disputes - this can be cheaper, quicker and less acrimonious than contested court proceedings
- introducing price competition in criminal legal aid, to ensure value for money and long-term sustainability
Background
Since 2006 there have been over 30 separate consultation exercises on reforming legal aid. This has resulted in a system that doesn’t provide long-term certainty for either the public or legal professionals.
It is one of the most comprehensive, and expensive, legal aid provisions in the world. We spent over £39 per person on legal aid, compared to around £5 per person in Spain, France and Germany.
Who we’ve consulted
The government published a consultation Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a more credible and efficient system on 9 April 2013.
We received nearly 16,000 responses and in addition to these, we gathered feedback from 14 stakeholder events throughout the consultation period. We published our response paper on 5 September 2013.
In the case of two of the original Transforming Legal Aid proposals – those to introduce competitive tendering and our proposed reforms to criminal advocacy fees – it was decided to undertake a second phase of consultation on refined proposals, this was published on 5 September 2013. It closes on 18 October 2013.
The government published a consultation paper, ‘Proposals for reform of legal aid in England and Wales’, in November 2010. The consultation was aimed at providers of publicly funded legal services and others with an interest in the justice system.
The response paper published in June 2011 received over 5,000 responses.
Bills and legislation
On 21 June 2011 the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill 2012 was introduced to Parliament. It received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act became law in May 2012 and came into effect in April 2013.
The government intends to introduce a lawful residence test for civil legal aid. The evidence requirements for this test will be set out in secondary legislation. A draft of the legislation which introduces these requirements is available on the Transforming Legal Aid: Next Steps consultation page. Subject to Parliamentary approval, the residence test will come into force on 4 August 2014.