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CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

Clinical Negligence

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs (1) how many legal aid funded clinical negligence cases were successful in each year since 1997; [185043]

(2) in how many clinical negligence claims legal costs exceeded damages paid to patients in each year since 1997; [185044]

(3) if he will list the (a) legal costs and (b) damages awarded for clinical negligence cases in each year since 1997. [185045]

Mr. Lammy: The Legal Services Commission is unable to provide the information necessary to answer the questions immediately. I will write to the hon. Member once the information becomes available.

Community Legal Service

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what areas of activity are covered by the Community Legal Service. [185151]

Mr. Lammy: The Community Legal Service (CLS) provides access to legal advice and representation across a number of common categories of law: family, housing, welfare benefits, debt, immigration and nationality, employment, mental health, consumer and general contract, clinical negligence, personal injury, actions against the police, education, community care, and public law.

These categories relate to all in the community but particularly focus on the problems that face some of the most vulnerable members of society.
 
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Support is provided for a range of services within these categories including legal help, help at court, legal representation, family mediation, help with mediation and general family help.

Community Legal Services

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how the new Community Legal Services Directory line will be monitored for (a) quality of advice, (b) access to advice and (c) capacity. [185262]

Mr. Lammy: The new Community Legal Service (CLS) Direct telephone has been designed to produce management information that will enable all key aspects of service to be monitored closely.

Advice delivered through the telephone service is subject to the same CLS specialist quality mark assurance that applies to CLS-funded face to face advice. There is also an additional set of quality requirements that apply solely to telephone advice, and telephone contractors are audited against these criteria. A sample of the advice given by the telephone contractors will also be subject to peer review by recognised experts, to ensure that it is of high standard.

The statistics generated relating to CLS Direct will give the Legal Service (LSC) an excellent new method of surveying where and how advice is accessed, the areas where demand for advice is greatest, and how this compares with supply. Telephone advice offers an easy means of accessing advice for people with disabilities, people in remote areas and people who have caring responsibilities. The LSC uses client feedback surveys to monitor whether telephone advice is effectively reaching these groups.

The number of calls received and cases opened will be monitored to establish trends. The telephone service can be easily scaled up to keep pace with demand. Advice providers within CLS Direct are contracted to deliver an agreed volume of advice hours per year, and one of the criteria the LSC used to select contractors was their ability to expand their number of advice hours if required.

Housing

Mr. Webb: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs for how many empty houses his Department is responsible; and if he will make a statement. [182151]

Mr. Lammy: There are no empty houses on the departmental estate.

Individual Case Contracts

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what savings have been made since the introduction of individual case contracts for very high cost criminal cases. [185037]

Mr. Lammy: From September 2003 the Legal Services Commission (LSC) has been bringing all new eligible cases under contract. Research prior to the introduction of VHCCC contracts suggested that savings of about 30 per cent. might be achieved. The LSC is conducting
 
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a survey of non-contracted VHCCC cases in order to establish a benchmark to compare with contracted VHCCC cases. However VHCCC cases are by their nature, long and complex and their attributes vary greatly from case to case. It will therefore be some time before a sufficient number of contracted cases have been completed before sensible comparisons can be made between contract and non-contract cases and before a reliable estimate of the savings can be made. However, the LSC calculates that during 2003–04 savings of around £26.5 million were achieved.

Prior to 2003–04 a pilot scheme was operated. While relatively few contracts were managed during this period the LSC estimates that savings of around £7 million were realised.

Judicial Appointments Commission

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs whom the Judicial Appointments Commission will consist of. [185022]

Mr. Leslie: Schedule 12 of the Constitutional Reform Bill provides that the Commission will consist of a lay chairman, five judicial members, two professional members (a barrister and a solicitor), five lay members, a tribunal (or similar) member and a lay justice.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the planned costs are of the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission. [185040]

Mr. Leslie: Our estimate for the annual running cost of the Judicial Appointments Commission is £8.5 million per year, reducing to £8 million, from 2008–09 due to its planned partial relocation out of London and the south-east.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs when the Judicial Appointments Commission will be set up. [185041]

Mr. Leslie: The timetable for the setting up of the Commission is dependent on the passage of the Constitutional Reform Bill through Parliament. If the Bill receives Royal Assent by spring 2005, we would aim to launch the Commission in spring 2006.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs if he will make a statement on the proposed establishment of an independent Judicial Appointments Commission. [185042]

Mr. Leslie: The Constitutional Reform Bill, currently before Parliament, will establish a Judicial Appointments Commission for England and Wales. The Commission will be responsible for selecting candidates for judicial appointment. The manner in which the Commission does so will be for it to determine, subject to the overriding criterion that selection must be on merit, and subject to any guidance which the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs may issue, for example, in requiring the Commission to seek to expand the pool of candidates from which a selection may be made.
 
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Legal Adviser Costs

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how much the Government has paid to (a) profit-making and (b) not-for-profit legal advisers for legal aid cases in each year since 1997. [185035]

Mr. Lammy: Payments made in each year since 1997 to (a) profit-making and (b) not-for-profit legal suppliers for legal aid work were as follows:
£ million

	Payments to profit-making agencies(26)	Payments to not-for-profit-making agencies(26)
1997–98	1,948.6	12.9
1998–99	2,039.8	17.3
1999–2000	1,950.6	18.5
2000–01	2,035.4	29.2
2001–02	2,065.2	47.5
2002–03	2,189.0	56.9
2003–04	2,316.0	58.1

⁽²⁶⁾ All payments are gross of contributions paid by funded clients and costs and damages paid by other parties.

Legal Aid

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the cost of post-charge legal aid has been in each year since 1997. [185033]

Mr. Lammy: The cost of providing post-charge legal aid in England and Wales for each financial year since 1997–98 was as follows:

	£ million
1997–98	609.1
1998–99	651.0
1999–2000	640.7
2000–01	705.3
2001–02	810.7
2002–03	907.8
2003–04	985.4

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what reforms are planned for post-charge legal aid. [185036]

Mr. Lammy: My Department published the Draft Criminal Defence Service Bill together with a consultation paper on 17 May 2004, copies of which were placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The proposals set out in the Bill fall into two parts. Firstly, the transfer of the responsibility for grant of criminal legal aid from the courts to the Legal Services Commission, and secondly the re-introduction of the means test.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs for what categories of charge the Government plans to abolish post-charge legal aid. [185928]

Mr. Lammy: The Government is not planning to abolish post-charge legal aid for any category of charge.
 
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Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the cost was of providing legal aid in immigration cases in each year since 1997. [185047]

Mr. Lammy: The overall costs for immigration and asylum advice, assistance and representation since 1997 in England and Wales were as follows:

	£million
1997–98	35
1998–99	53
1999–2000	61
2000–01	81
2001–02	129
2002–03	176
2003–04	200

The Legal Services Commission cannot separate the cost of immigration and nationality cases from asylum cases, but the vast majority are thought to relate to asylum. The substantial increase in legal aid expenditure has been due, in large part, to the introduction of legal aid for representation at appeal, efforts to reduce the backlog of asylum cases and increases in asylum seeker numbers. Cash figures are expected to remain high in 2004–05 as work continues to clear immigration and asylum backlogs.

We expect that costs will fall in subsequent years as a result of the current lower intake of asylum seekers and measures to control spending.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many (a) not for profit organisations and (b) private practice firms are undertaking legal aid work; and what fields of work are covered by the former organisations. [185038]

Mr. Lammy: 414 Not for Profit (NfP) agencies and 5,033 solicitors' offices had a contract with the Legal Services Commission at 31 March 2004. Some solicitors' offices hold contracts in both civil and criminal work.

The total number of offices with General Civil Contracts at 31 March 2004 was 4,715. Of this figure, 4,301 were solicitors' firms and 414 were NfP agencies.

2,669 solicitors' offices were operating under Criminal Defence Services (CDS) contracts on 31 March 2004. As at 1 July 2004, on the introduction of the new General Criminal Contract, 2,525 firms had signed the contract.

NfP agencies undertake civil legal aid work in a range of categories within the civil category of law. In 2004 NfPs agencies held contracts in the following categories: family, community care, consumer, debt, education, employment, housing, immigration, mental health, public law and welfare benefits.

Mr. Djanogly: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many firms have stopped doing legal aid work in each year since 1997. [185039]

Mr. Lammy: The Legal Services Commission is able to provide figures for the number of solicitors' offices in England and Wales that have had civil contracts withdrawn each financial year since 2000, as follows:
 
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	Number
April 2000 to March 2001	700
April 2001 to March 2002	539
April 2002 to March 2003	408
April 2003 to March 2004	633

The figures above do not distinguish between firms withdrawing from the legal aid scheme and those that have had their contracts terminated, as the Commission's systems do not make this distinction.

Contracting for criminal legal aid began in April 2001 with 2,931 suppliers. During 2001–02, 146 contracts were terminated and 151 were terminated in 2002–03. Between April 2003 and March 2004, 317 suppliers had criminal contracts terminated.

Figures prior to the introduction of contracting in 2000 are not available, as under the previous advice and assistance scheme there was no method of calculating how many firms stopped legal aid work.

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