News In Focus
4 March 2010
Legal Services Commission to be scrapped
The Legal Services Commission, the body that runs legal aid in England & Wales, is to be scrapped and replaced with a Government executive agency, Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced yesterday.
The move to regain Government control of spending on the £2.1bn legal aid budget south of the border follows critical reports by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee last month, and the National Audit Office last year, which questioned whether the LSC was delivering value for money, and a report by a snior civil servant, Sir Ian Magee, commissioned by mnisters in response, which was published yesterday.
LSC chief executive Carolyn Regan resigned with immediate effect.
The Government wants the support of opposition parties for early legislation to give effect to the proposals, but campaigners expressed their concerns for the independence of legal services and the implications for human rights of closer Government control.
Steve Hynes, Director of the Legal Action Group, described the move as "a complete politicisation of legal aid administration" with "no semblance of independence".
However Legal Aid Minister Lord Bach said he wanted to make it clear that the Government considered it essential that there was "a clear separation between ministers and funding decisions in individual cases".