Social Welfare Law

Lord Hope of Craighead Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hope of Craighead (CB)]

My Lords, it is a very real pleasure to follow the noble Baroness and her very thoughtful speech and to follow the right reverend Prelate. I join with the noble Baroness in congratulating him on his maiden speech. My impression in listening to both of them is that they contribute real value to this debate because they have experienced at first hand the problems that we are talking about. Some of us who are lawyers, such as myself, do not have that privilege, although of course we encounter many of those who are in trouble. But it is the real value of their contribution that needs to be studied very carefully, based on their own first-hand experience of the problems that we are talking about.

As for the report of my noble friend Lord Low, I express deep admiration for what he and his commission have achieved. I confess that I read the report with a mixture of despair and relief, rather like the noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, who talked about a mixture of feeling worried and encouraged. The element of despair comes from the appreciation that the report brings of the state in which we now find ourselves. Step by step, we have got into a position of real difficulty, in which so many gaps exist right across the system where legal advice and support are not available. It would be wrong to say that we have sleepwalked into this problem, because so many people have been advising Governments, particularly this one, time and again, that cutting back so much on legal aid, for reasons that we all understand, would add to and create this problem.

The relief and encouragement comes partly from the way in which the commissioners have gone about their work and the integrated approach that they urge the Government to adopt, and also from the various signs throughout the report of what is going on elsewhere in other sectors. The point that I wish to draw to the Minister’s attention is the need in this integrated approach to support what others are doing to fill the gaps.

Let me give one particular example based on my own experience in dealing with students in two of the Scottish universities. I know that the report deals with the position in England and Wales, but Scotland is not all that different; the problems are very similar. One thing that has been growing, both in Scottish universities and certainly in the universities in England and Wales as well, is an appreciation by students of the gaps that emerge and the part that they can play in filling them by providing legal advice where it is needed. There are two particular projects that I know about, one of which was started in 2003 by the University of Strathclyde Law Clinic, which is the largest of these institutions in Scotland, with 195 student advisers, and more recently the Aberdeen Law Project, which started in 2009 and has much the same ambitions, conducting much the same kind of work.

These projects are guided by lawyers within the academic community. They are also funded, to a very substantial degree, by law firms. It is a pro bono exercise. DLA Piper provides funds for the Strathclyde clinic; Pinsent Masons provides funds for the Aberdeen Law Project. This is greatly welcome, for, while the universities themselves would like to provide financial support, it is very difficult for them to do that, given the pressures on their own funding.

There are ways in which the Government can encourage these projects, one of which was demonstrated by the noble and learned Baroness, Lady Scotland of Asthal, when she was in government. She encouraged and participated in an annual awards scheme to student organisations of this kind. It so happened that Strathclyde won the competition in one of the years I was chancellor. She was there, she encouraged what they were doing, and she gave the feeling that the Government were behind what was being done by these student bodies. That is valuable encouragement. It helps those who are thinking of providing funding to feel they are doing something which is in the broad public interest as well as in the interest of the students themselves.

The other aspect of the problem is the work done by the courts. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Woolf, made major strides in simplifying the way in which the courts go about their work. One point, which I particularly emphasise, is the way in which he educated us all in the need for case management, a phrase that I did not encounter in the early days but is now on everybody’s lips, and it works all the way down through the system. It is a means of simplifying issues, working with the litigants in person to be sure that as little time as possible is wasted and people identify the issues as soon as they can.

There is the emphasis in paragraph 5.27 on the need for independent advice. I thought that was a valuable point, partly because I have been serving on a Select Committee on personal service companies, a rather complicated tax matter. Part of the evidence that we have been hearing comes from people who have been trying to use an advice system that the HMRC provides for people who think they are in difficulties. The HMRC says that the advice system is completely independent and that nothing will be communicated to the tax inspectors. People do not believe it, and it is underused. There is, therefore, something to be said for the point drawn attention to in that paragraph—for the Government appreciating that there are independent advisers who need to be supported, as well as government-based advice systems.

The other point worth stressing, as others have done, is the way in which modern technology can be brought to bear to encourage people to seek advice. Younger people than I have apps attached to their iPhones which have access to all sorts of things. I have just acquired an iPhone, and I have been discovering its wonders. Surely there are things the Government could do to increase the accessibility of advice—of knowledge of how systems should be made to work in people’s interests and of the complex system of social benefits. There are avenues to which this report draws attention which are well worth pursuing and should not cost a great deal if proper advice is obtained.

I endorse the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Bach—that there is an opportunity, because of the timing of this report. As he said, we should not let the opportunity go. I would warmly endorse that and all the recommendations made in this excellent report.