MoJ announces review of Legal Aid

The Ministry of Justice has announced that a review into the delivery of legal aid will be undertaken by Sir Ian Magee.

The review is to ensure that the annual £2.1bn currently spent on legal aid is delivering best value for money, providing a healthy and sustainable future for social welfare law and effectively integrating the criminal defence service with the criminal justice system.

Sir Ian's brief will be to assess the delivery and governance arrangements of the legal aid system and make recommendations to:

explore the separation of the Criminal Defence Service (CDS) and Community Legal Service (CLS) and options for doing so effectively and efficiently should that be the recommended way forward
provide for effective and transparent financial management of both funds and their administration
provide for effective ministerial accountability and policy direction in respect of both the CDS and CLS, while continuing to ensure that every application to the CLS and CDS funds are decided fairly, within the criteria, at arm’s length from government
identify appropriate delivery models for both the CDS and CLS and their relationship with the ministry.

Legal Aid Minister Willy Bach said:

"‘I believe now is the right time to review the channels through which legal aid is delivered to ensure that we are getting the best value for taxpayers’ money. It’s also a good time re-examine the best ways to deliver this vital service to ensure a healthy future for legal aid."

Commenting on the announcement Law Society president, Robert Heslett, said:

"...The review needs to be about the long term strategy for legal aid services. The system too often ignores the importance of a stable supplier base, which has reduced over years, as has access to justice."

Sir Ian Magee will report back to government in January.

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Oh dear, another review of legal aid...
Time passes. Was it only 2006 that Lord Carter published his paper "Legal Aid Reform: The Way Ahead" (with hindsight, could this be the most inappropriately titled policy paper ever?).

So, less than three years after this 'fundamental review' of legal aid we have yet another review to look forward to. It seems as if legal aid reviews are a bit like buses...

Still, it's interesting that Carter's proposals have been so unceremoniously trashed so quickly. The reasons are many and varied. Firstly, BVT as proposed by Carter would have been difficult to implement even with a tailwind. Add to the recipe the lack of experience of the LSC in terms of markets, tendering and competition and you had a toxic mix.

Secondly, as I'm sure the LSC is now realising, badly and hastily conceived fixed fee schemes can rebound on you. Our guess is that expenditure is ballooning under certain fee schemes as a result of their poor design.

The bigger picture that emerges is that the MoJ may be losing faith in the LSC's ability to deliver reform to the system. The Carter implementation has been somewhat bungled and it follows a terrible few years of abandoned and delayed initiatives.

The MoJ's patience is clearly running out and could the LSC be one of the early casualties of the much heralded "bonfire of the quangos"? You heard it here first...