Legal Aid Scheme: Lancashire

(asked on 8th July 2014) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many new matter starts were awarded in mental health in Lancashire for (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15.


Answered by
Shailesh Vara Portrait
Shailesh Vara
This question was answered on 17th July 2014

Shailesh Vara:

The LAA contract periods do not necessarily correspond to financial years, figures have therefore been provided by contract schedule period rather than financial year. Existing Mental Health Contracts (which began in April 2010) were awarded in the areas asked about using the North West as the procurement area. We have therefore only been able to provide data on the smaller areas requested based on the location of the provider but this was not the basis on which services were procured. Figures exclude any new matter starts allocated to providers that have subsequently withdrawn from their contract or from the mental health category.

The LAA has recently undertaken a procurement exercise for new Mental Health contracts and new contracts are due to start on 1 August 2014. Allocations for matter starts for 2014/15 are therefore split over two separate periods: April 2014 to August 2014 under the existing contract and from August 2014 to April 2015 under the new contract.

In respect of the new contract, matter starts were advertised and awarded using wider procurement areas so we are only able to provide data on the North Procurement Area, which encompasses the requested geographic areas. The total number of matter starts initially awarded through the tender process in the North for the period between 1 August 2014 and 31 March 2015 was 9,121. This is a provisional figure only as successful organisations are still in the process of verifying their tenders prior to contracts being issued.

Mental Health New Matter Starts allocated to Providers located in the North West for the period April 2010 to July 2014 are as follows:

Schedule Period

Mental Health New Matter Start Allocations

North West

Mental Health New Matter Start Allocations Lancashire

Apr 10 - Oct 10

2,398

598

1st Nov 10 - 14th Nov 10

458

137

15th Nov 10 - Nov 11

5,167

1,899

Dec 11 - Jan 12

864

238

Feb 12 - Jan 13

5,116

1,607

Feb 13 - Mar 13

834

271

Apr 13 - Mar 14

5,342

1,757

Apr 14 – Aug 14

1,782

596

No provider offices were located in the constituency of Blackpool North and Cleveleys for the period April 2010 to July 2014. However, the majority of Mental Health services are delivered to detained clients and therefore not from provider offices. The LAA's Mental Health contracts enable providers to deliver services to clients across the procurement area as a whole (North West presently and North as of 1 August 2014).

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