25/09/2009 – Taking forward work on Bach report recommendations
The Ministry of Justice has published an 'implementation plan' that outlines how it proposes to take forward work on the recommendations in Lord Bach's report 'Legal advice at local level'.
NB - published in June 2009, Lord Bach's report had been commissioned in response to concerns about the impact of recent reforms such as fixed fees on the provision of civil legal advice and the likelihood that the recession would increase demand.
Amongst the areas of work outlined in the implementation plan are -
- establishing whether there are sections of the population that are routinely more 'difficult to serve' (for example, those with mental heath problems or those with English as a second language) and whether there are certain providers who deal with a disproportionate number of 'difficult' clients, or who have a disproportionate number of complex cases;
- making provision in the new Unified Contract for piloting of alternatives to the current fee arrangements, such as reducing the 'exceptional' threshold to twice (rather than three times) the fixed fee (with an accompanying reduction in the standard fee);
- in response to concerns that the system of fixed fees is creating 'perverse incentives' – for example by encouraging behaviour by providers which is not in the best interest of vulnerable clients - using data collected by the Legal Services Commission to identify whether 'cherry picking' and/or 'early closing' is taking place;
- establishing a working group - in response to concerns that the current system of legal aid funding makes no provision for work carried out by many advice providers, particularly those in the not for profit sector, such as 'second tier' support to community organisations - to examine how this work is currently funded and to support the Department in developing proposals to increase accessibility and, where possible, availability of funding to advice providers for this work; and
- ensuring that equalities impact assessments and needs analyses are carried out as part of the process of setting up future CLACs or CLANs and seeking to identify other funding streams that may be affected by the proposed new service.
The Ministry of Justice Legal advice at local level - implementation plan is available here.
Other lasa websites