Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012

Jonathan Djanogly Excerpts

Thursday 24th May 2012 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Mr Jonathan Djanogly)]

The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 received Royal Assent on 1 May 2012. The Government have already announced that the provisions in part 2 relating to civil litigation funding and costs will come into force in April 2013. However, there are two exceptions to that.

First, the provisions in relation to sections 44 and 46 (recoverable success fees and insurance premiums) will not come into effect in relation to mesothelioma claims until a review has been undertaken and published in accordance with section 48. The Ministry of Justice will set out further details of the timing and contents of the review in due course.

Secondly, the provisions in relation to sections 44 and 46 will not come into effect until April 2015 in respect of insolvency proceedings. Insolvency cases bring substantial revenue to the taxpayer, as well as to other creditors, and encourage good business practice which can be seen as an important part of the growth agenda with wider benefits for the economy. These features merit a delayed implementation to allow time for those involved to adjust and implement such alternative arrangements as they consider will allow these cases to continue to be pursued. Success fees and insurance premiums will therefore remain recoverable beyond April 2013 in respect of these two classes of case only (in addition to insurance premiums in respect of expert reports in clinical negligence cases provided for by section 46 of the Act), although the fixed recoverable success fees in respect of employer’s liability disease claims in section V of part 45 of the civil procedure rules will continue to apply in respect of mesothelioma proceedings for the time being.

The Government have asked the Civil Justice Council for further advice in relation to detailed aspects of implementation by the end of June in relation to qualified “one way costs shifting” (QOCS).

The Ministry of Justice will also continue to engage with key stakeholders and the senior judiciary and will announce further details of the policy position by the summer recess. Changes to the civil procedure rules (CPR) will be considered by the CPR Committee in the autumn, in order for the necessary changes to come into effect for April 2013. Updates are provided on the judiciary website at: http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/publications-and-reports/review-of-civil-litigation-costs