The legal aid system in England and Wales ‘compares favourably’ with any in the world, despite the proposed cuts, according to the chair of the Legal Services Commission.
In a speech, Sir Bill Callaghan (pictured) told Liverpool Law Society: ‘Together the LSC and legal aid providers can manage the changes ahead. Together we can deal with robust exchanges. And together we can ensure that clients receive high-quality legal aid and that the interests of the taxpayer are protected.’
The LSC’s job, he said, is to ‘deliver what the government wants as effectively as possible’. But Callaghan said there are times when it is appropriate for the LSC to speak up and to give advice to ministers on practical matters.
For example, he said ‘the Commission is clear that the successful delivery of legal aid needs a viable provider base’.
That is why he felt compelled to write to justice secretary Kenneth Clarke last year to highlight his fears about potential operational problems that could result from the ‘scope and speed’ of the legal aid reform process.
Callaghan stressed that independent decision-making should be safeguarded when the LSC moves to become an executive agency of the Ministry of Justice. The LSC commissioners support an amendment to the bill that would introduce a system for appealing decisions made by the newly created director of legal aid casework.
In addition, he said the director should be able to draw on the advice of lawyers outside the Government Legal Service, as the LSC does now.
On contracting arrangements, Callaghan favoured of a move away from fixed allocations of new matter starts to licensing civil contract work.
‘A more open competition at client level would be one way of dealing with this issue and we think it should improve the quality of client care,’ he suggested.
He said there is still a lot of discussion to be had about the detail of how this would work, but the LSC envisages introducing this approach in April 2013, at the same time as the LSC is abolished and the new executive agency takes over.
Callaghan said the LSC’s strategy in tackling the backlog in payments made to providers has reduced the backlog for magistrates’ court claims by 60% and for advocate claims by 15%.
Callaghan said the LSC plans to introduce more online working for the grants and payments of civil legal aid, with a pilot scheme planned in South Tyneside in 2012.
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