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Remand Prisoners
Mr. Stinchcombe: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what guidance he issues to courts on sending their record of a remand decision to the prison where a defendant is remanded to custody; and which courts follow this practice. [23904]
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Mr. Wills: All magistrates, Crown and county courts produce a warrant when remanding an individual to custody. This is given to the person or organisation transporting the individual to prison, and then handed over at the place of detention.
Legal Aid
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if she will break down the contract allocation for legal aid in London. [23295]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of solicitor and not- for-profit contractors in the London region, by category of law, as at the end of March 2001, was as follows:
| Solicitors | Not-for-profit | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | 413 | 2 |
| Mental health | 59 | 4 |
| Debt | 23 | 22 |
| Employment | 39 | 22 |
| Consumer | 32 | 3 |
| Housing | 222 | 30 |
| Welfare benefits | 65 | 43 |
| Education | 12 | 0 |
| Community care | 23 | 0 |
| Actions against the police | 18 | n/a |
| Public law | 9 | n/a |
| Immigration | 266 | 37 |
| Personal Injury | 183 | n/a |
| Clinical Negligence | 70 | n/a |
| Additional Tolerance | 438 | n/a |
Note:
Not-for-profit organisations are not awarded contracts for actions against the police, public law, personal injury, clinical negligence or additional tolerance work.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what the civil legal aid budget was in (a) 1999–2000 and (b) 2000–01; and how much was spent on the different categories of law. [23300]
Ms Rosie Winterton: In the financial year 1999–2000 the Legal Aid Board was allocated provision of £1,182.1 million of the overall legal aid budget. There was not a predetermined sum allocated to civil legal aid. A net total of £768.5 million was spent on civil legal aid.
In 2000–01, the Legal Services Commission was allocated a provision for the Community Legal Services Fund of £781 million.
The Legal Services Commission, and the Legal Aid Board before it, spent the following amounts on civil representation in the different areas of law in 1999–2000 and 2000–01:
Note:
Figures are stated gross since receipts cannot readily be allocated by category of law
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In addition, net expenditure on other civil legal aid (legal help, assistance by way of representation and advice and assistance) was £231.7 million in 2000–01 and £208.4 million in 1999–2000. It is not possible to split this into comparable categories because category definitions changed between the two years.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many full legal aid practitioners there were in (a) private practice and (b) not for profit contracts in (i) 1999–2000 and (ii) 2000–01, broken down into (A) housing, (B) immigration, (C) employment, (D) welfare benefits, (E) education, (F) community care and (G) mental health. [23296]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The number of solicitor contractors by category of law at the end of March 2000 and March 2001, was as follows:
| Category | 2000 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | 733 | 673 |
| Immigration | 419 | 482 |
| Employment | 342 | 300 |
| Welfare benefits | 451 | 391 |
| Education | 31 | 40 |
| Community care | 25 | 38 |
| Mental Health | 322 | 349 |
The number of not-for-profit contractors by category of law at the end of March 2000 and March 2001, was as follows:
| Category | 2000 | 2001 |
|---|---|---|
| Housing | 113 | 115 |
| Immigration | 63 | 66 |
| Employment | 67 | 73 |
| Welfare benefits | 226 | 245 |
| Education | 4 | 4 |
| Community care | 3 | 0 |
| Mental Health | 10 | 6 |
Community Legal Service
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how much has been spent on setting up and maintaining community legal service partnerships in the current financial year; and which budget the funding comes from. [23297]
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Ms Rosie Winterton: As at the end of September, the Legal Services Commission had spent £1,881,500 in the current financial year on setting up and maintaining community legal service partnerships (CLSPs).
The funds allocated to the community legal service partnerships are:
| Partnership support fund (PSF) | |
|---|---|
| Spent so far | 56.5 |
| Allocated | 900 |
The £900,000 allocated is made up of £400,000 from the Commission's grant in aid, and £500,000 from the Community Legal Service (CLS) Fund.
Total staffing costs at the end of September were £1,825,000. This figure relates to the totality of planning and partnership work, and includes some elements not related to CLSP development, such as the support for, and administration of, the Commission's regional legal services committees. As these various functions are so integrated with CLSP development it has not been possible to separate out the expenditure.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many (a) specialist help providers and (b) generalist providers are in operation; and how many specialist help providers were in operation when the community legal service was set up. [23299]
Ms Rosie Winterton: As at November 2001, the following numbers of providers were in operation:
- (a) Specialist: 5,463
- (b) General help: 302
- (c) General help with casework: 241.
At the time of the launch of the community legal service (CLS) in April 2000 only certain categories of work at what is now known as the specialist level were restricted to specialist suppliers, namely those with a licence granted under the Commission's general civil contract. Other work at what is now known as the specialist level was provided outside the contracted system. All legal help work—formerly known as advice and assistance—was contracted. It is therefore impossible to make a direct comparison between the position before 1 April 2000 and now. There were 5,286 contracted providers of all types in place in April 2000.
Mr. Austin Mitchell: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, how many community legal service partnerships are operating without a specialist help provider in each category of law. [23298]
Ms Rosie Winterton: The information in the form requested is not readily available and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost. The Legal Services Commission does not routinely collect information at national level in the terms this question asks.
Community legal service partnerships (CLSPs) do not deliver services. They bring together organisations offering legal and advice services, such as solicitors in private practice, citizens' advice bureaux, law centres, and local authorities, and other funders, providers and users
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of legal and advice services. Partners act together to co-ordinate and improve access to, and delivery of, legal services and help to carry out need assessment, gap analysis and planning activity.
The Commission currently records data according to 'bid zones'. 'Bid zones' are geographical areas which form the basis of contracting decisions. Information is recorded highlighting areas where a high level of need has been identified, and indicating whether the need has been met, in order to measure progress against the Commission's objective to develop effective providers operating in those categories of law where a need has been identified. In many areas, there will only be a relatively low level of need identified for specialist categories. In these areas, services are often provided by family practitioners who are authorised to carry out work in other categories under what we call 'tolerances'. The process of assessing priority is a key responsibility of CLSPs.
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