Supplementary Memorandum submitted by
the Northern Ireland Court Service
ANNOUNCEMENT BY LORD CHANCELLOR OF CRITERIA
FOR FUNDING FROM EXTRA-STATUTORY SCHEME
I write to bring you up to date in order that
you can consider whether to draw to the Committee's attention
an announcement which the Lord Chancellor made on 27 March 2001
in a Written Answer to a Parliamentary Question[2].
The PQ set out for consultation the criteria which he intends
to use to assess applications for funding from the extra-statutory
ex-gratia Scheme (established in July 2000 to provide representation
for proceedings before coroners in exceptional inquests in Northern
Ireland).
The full text of the Parliamentary Question
and Answer is set out in an enclosure to this letter.
The Lord Chancellor established the Extra-Statutory
Scheme to provide funding for representation for proceedings before
coroners in exceptional inquests in Northern Ireland in the context
of the legal aid review and as a measure pending securing a statutory
power as suggested at paragraph 5.15 of the Legal Aid Consultation
Paper, "Public Benefit and the Public Purse".
The Decisions Paper "The Way Ahead"
(paragraph 72) indicated that the Lord Chancellor intended to
secure a statutory power to grant public funding for representation
in exceptional cases which otherwise be excluded from the scope
of legal aid.
18 April 2001
2 The text of this Answer also appeared in the House
of Lords Official Report, 27 March 2001, vol. 624, col. WA15. Back
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