In April 2000, the Legal Services Commission (the Commission) was given responsibility for establishing and maintaining in England and Wales the Community Legal Service (the Service), which incorporates the old civil legal aid scheme. The Service provides eligible people with access to legal services, for example on family law (including advice in support of family mediation), social welfare issues, and advice on asylum applications. Most applicants for civil legal aid are required to undergo a means test. In 2001-02, net expenditure borne by the Community Legal Service Fund totalled £734 million. The Commission is accountable to the Lord Chancellor's Department (the Department).
The Commission funds the provision of civil legal aid through contracts with suppliers under two headings:
- Controlled work consists of all legal advice, and legal representation before certain tribunals. The supplier decides whether to provide services in a case, under a contract which limits the number of cases it may take, and which limits expenditure on individual cases to specified approval thresholds. Expenditure on controlled work totalled £258 million in 2001-02.
- Licensed work covers all legal representation before the Courts, including all high cost cases, which are managed under individual contracts with the Commission. Most work on representation follows on from advice cases. Expenditure on licensed work totalled £476 million in 2001-02.
At 31 March 2002, 4,543 solicitors' firms and 389 not-for-profit agencies had contracts with the Commission to provide legal help, and a further 389 solicitor's firms were licensed to carry out legal representation work.
On the basis of a Report by the Comptroller and Auditor General,[1] we took evidence from the Department and the Chief Executive of the Legal Services Commission. We draw the following main conclusions from our examination:
- Suppliers of Civil Legal Aid provide an important service to some of the most disadvantaged people in society. The good service provided by many suppliers may, however, be tarnished by poor quality advice and persistent over claiming of costs by some. The Department and the Commission needs to act quickly in such cases to bring about early improvements in performance to protect the interests of those needing advice, and to protect public funds. Firms who consistently underperform or overcharge should have their contracts terminated and, where appropriate, be referred to their professional body.
- Shortages of expertise exist in some areas of legally aided work such as family law, creating potential access difficulties especially for those living in rural areas. The Commission should consider how the supplier base can be developed further, for example by extending accreditation schemes for people training as specialists in particular aspects of the law only. Such an approach may reduce the overall costs of advice, and provide greater flexibility of supply.
- The Commission should obtain more evidence about the quality of service provided by suppliers by evaluating outcomes achieved for clients where appropriate, and by extending the use of its peer review system, already trialled successfully on asylum and immigration work in London. Past service quality should be evaluated in making decisions about the award of contracts and costs of services.
- The Commission should evaluate the costs and benefits of its current approach to administering the Community Legal Aid Scheme, and devote resources to those activities which have the most impact in protecting public funds or which address areas of greatest risk. The Commission's debt recovery team, for example, recovers one pound for every three pence spent on the team, and a similar evaluation of the compliance audit regime should be undertaken. The outcome should be compared to alternative methods of oversight such as analysing the profile of claims submitted by suppliers and automated review of trends in claims and payments, especially where a supplier's audit record is good. An investigation should also be made into how the application of new technology could offer significant savings in the auditing of suppliers' compliance.
|
