Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town Excerpts

Monday 5th March 2012 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town]

7B: After Clause 6, insert the following new Clause—
“Independent review: welfare reform and available legal advice
One year after the commencement of Part 1 of this Act, the Lord Chancellor must commission an independent review to assess how the changes made in this Act and the Welfare Reform Act 2012 have affected—(a) understanding by people who are entitled to benefits of—(i) which benefits they may be entitled to; and(ii) how to challenge (both review and any further rights of appeal) a decision made in respect of those benefits;(b) access to, and provision of, legal advice about entitlement to benefits;(c) the number and any increase in welfare benefit cases that are made or referred to—(i) parliamentary constituency offices;(ii) local authorities; and(iii) other prescribed agencies; and(d) the nature of the legal advice provided and resolution of such cases from the bodies listed in paragraph (c).”

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town]

My Lords, I trust that I have an equally wise amendment. For benefit recipients, their families, their advisers and the statutory services that support and assist such people—largely vulnerable people—the next 24 months will present challenges, difficulties and new hurdles. Rarely has there been such a mammoth change to the tax and benefit system, not to mention it happening with the parallel loss of professional advice to the people concerned if this Bill remains unamended. Of course, for the rich, as ever, there is no problem. I happened to read an advertisement in the current edition of Counsel, which for those of you who do not read it is the journal for barristers, which stated:

“Potentially up to £100,000 tax relief up for grabs: limited window … to get back some of the 50% tax … act before 5 April … New rules which received Royal Assent in July 2011 … created an opportunity to claim tax relief on pension contributions … made in the last few years … the twist is … these rules can be … retrospective … there are some hoops to jump through and therefore it is important that individuals … seek advice”.

Cheekily, the firm gives an e-mail address that starts, “barcouncil”, although it cannot have offended the Bar Council too much as it ran the advert. Clearly, if you are well paid and can afford professional advice, that could be worth £100,000 to you.

My interest is not with such folk but with those seeking to challenge inaccurate assessments by HMRC’s tax credit office or those for whom benefits may be their sole income—the difference between poverty and coping and the dividing line between surviving and drowning.

--- Later in debate ---

The Ministry of Justice is working hard to improve its evidence-base of legal aid clients and providers in order to get maximum benefit from the review process. Such a review is likely to consider the sorts of issues raised in this amendment. But we are not persuaded that the face of the Bill is an appropriate place in which to place such responsibility. I would therefore urge the noble Baroness to withdraw her amendment.

[Baroness Hayter of Kentish Town]

In thanking my noble friends Lady Hollis and Lord Howarth for their support, perhaps I may reassure my noble friend Lord Howarth that there will be no problem for Members of Parliament. The new elected senators or Members of the House of Lords can take up all these problems because they will have nothing else to do. I love constituency work. How it will go will be interesting. Anyone who has been elected knows that people first go to their local authority and to their councillors and then to become an MP. When I was working with MEPs, I saw it also went on to there.

This is one of the cheapest amendments one will ever get. The estimate is that for every £1 spent on legal aid on benefits advice the state saves more than £8. We are trying to give the Government the opportunity to have the evidence to change their minds. Given that there will be a post-legislative review, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.

Amendment 7B withdrawn.