Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Lord Avebury Excerpts

Wednesday 18th January 2012 Lords Chamber

By way of illustration, paragraph 19 would allow for legal aid to be provided for a person to bring a false imprisonment claim where they had been unlawfully detained by a public authority and the actions of the authority were deliberate or dishonest. Noble Lords should note that legal aid may also be available for bringing claims in relation to a loss of liberty such as false imprisonment claims under paragraph 20 of Schedule 1, providing that the act of a public authority involves a significant breach of convention rights. It also retains within scope legal aid for other means of challenging detention or loss of liberty. For example, civil legal services provided in relation to a writ of habeas corpus have been retained in scope under paragraph 18. Public law challenges to the lawfulness of a public authority's actions could be brought by judicial review, which is in scope under paragraph 17. The Bill also allows for the provision of civil legal services in relation to immigration detention, including bail applications. I hope that that gives some reassurance to the noble Earl, Lord Sandwich, and the noble Lord, Lord Beecham, who raised that matter. That is available under paragraph 22.

[Lord Avebury]

Although paragraph 26(1)(a) allows claimants to be granted legal aid in respect of asylum, it does not extend to the families of refugees who seek to rejoin the principal member of the family in the United Kingdom. Anxiety concerning that omission has been expressed by the UNHCR. Can my noble and learned friend say anything on that?

[Lord Wallace of Tankerness]

It is an important point, which has been raised before in the context of the Bill. I think that Amendments 69 and 71 in the name of my noble friend Lord Thomas of Gresford—to which we will come, dare I say, sooner rather than later—raise the point about families of asylum seekers. I hope that when we come to that, we will have a proper debate on the important issue that my noble friend raises.