Oral Answers to Questions

Andy McDonald Excerpts

Tuesday 18th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

3. What his future plans for legal aid are.

[Andy McDonald (Middlesbrough) (Lab)]

11. What his future plans for legal aid are.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Shailesh Vara)]

We are implementing the reforms of litigation procurement and Crown court advocacy fees that we announced last month. Although making fee reductions is unavoidable, we have listened to the professions wherever we can and taken concrete steps to ease the impact of the changes. Moreover, the Justice Secretary has given a personal commitment that this Government will not seek further savings from criminal legal aid.

The Ministry of Justice and the Legal Aid Agency keep the operation of both the criminal and civil legal aid schemes under continual review. The Government plan to undertake a post-implementation review of the legal aid provisions within the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 within three to five years of implementation. That review will include an assessment of the impact of the reforms implemented during that period.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Vara]

We have made it absolutely clear that for the residence test it is important that they are our people—that they have some link to this country. We have set out where there are exceptions, and that has been made abundantly clear.

[Andy McDonald]

Is the Secretary of State worried by the increasing number of defendants in serious cases who cannot access legal advice following the 30% cut in advocates’ fees?

[Mr Vara]

It is important to put things into perspective. The 30% reduction applies to only a tiny number of criminal cases—they are called “very high cost cases” and constitute less than 1% of Crown court cases. The reductions we are making will ensure that the barristers who do that sort of work are still receiving good fee income.