Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he had considered the interim findings of the report of Professor Walton on the insolvency litigation landscapes, published on 10 December 2015, before making the announcement on 17 December 2015 to end the insolvency exemption from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.

Since the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012, it has always been the government’s stated intention that the exemption for insolvency cases would be temporary. Commencement of Part 2 of LASPO’s conditional fee (or ‘no win no fee’) arrangement reforms for insolvency, was announced in December and will apply from April this year. The aim of LASPO’s reforms was to control the cost of civil litigation.

Ministry of Justice Officials discussed Professor Walton’s report with him, but the Ministry of Justice did not agree with his conclusions. Officials have also met representatives of insolvency practitioners who use no win no fee arrangements to fund these cases, as well as those who fund them in other ways.