Illustrative examples of the effects of legal aid scope changes on Legal Help

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1 Illustrative examples of the effects of legal aid scope changes on Legal Help Purpose This document outlines how current Legal Help case volumes may be impacted by scope changes following implementation of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act It provides some illustrative examples for potential providers from 2013 to assist in assessing the likely impact of the changes against existing services. The examples in this document are wholly illustrative. This document is not intended as a substitute for the previously published Impact Assessments, but is intended to draw attention to the practical implications of the changes. Applicant Organisations tendering for a new contract from April 2013 will need to consider all the information available to them and take their own view as to the volume of cases that they wish to tender to deliver. As a result of the reduction in scope, the volume of matter starts advertised in procurement plans for each Category of Law is also lower than has been advertised in previous tenders. Applicant Organisations tendering for contracts from April 2013 are therefore encouraged to consider their individual case mix together with the published revised category definitions to ensure that they bid for volumes of work that they intend to deliver and are realistic in light of the volume of their likely intended future case mix that is to remain in scope. This document provides illustrative examples of such likely future case mixes. Background The next stage of the tender process for new face-to-face contracts opened on 14 September. The contracts let as a result will implement changes to the scope of public funding available as specified in the LASPO Act Detailed information on the estimated volume and value of the reduction in legal aid available from April 2013 for each category of law is set out at Annex A of the Impact Assessment that forms part of the Royal Assent impact assessments. This is available to download from the following page of the Ministry of Justice website: This shows that there will be a significant impact on the Legal Help work that will continue to be funded from April Details of the volume of matter starts that are being made available in the Categories of Law for which we are inviting tenders (Family, Housing & Debt and Immigration & Asylum) are available in procurement plans. These are available to download from LSC s website ( on the Community Legal Service > Tenders > Face to face tenders for 2013 contracts page. Illustrative examples This document is divided into three sections, looking separately at the potential impacts on Family, Housing and Immigration & Asylum. There is no section looking at Debt as those Applicant Organisations that are successful in bidding for Housing & Debt Services will receive a notional allocation of Debt matter starts. 1

2 Family By way of example, from April 2013 legal aid will be available for face to face advice as present in: public law family proceedings; and domestic abuse cases (obtaining civil protective injunctions); and international family maintenance and children cases It will also remain available in other private law family proceedings in the following circumstances: private law family cases where domestic abuse is a feature (for the victim only), provided the client can show specified evidence of the abuse private law children cases where child abuse is a feature (for the protective party only), provided the client can show specified evidence of the abuse private law children cases where the court has made the child a party to the case (for the child party only) To prevent and remedy child abduction (domestic as well as international) It will also be available for the new level of service Help with Family Mediation. The published Impact Assessments estimate that on average there will be a 75% reduction in the volume of family Legal Help work funded through legal aid. However, the impact is likely to differ depending upon the case mix of the individual provider. The following illustrative examples provide a potential indication of the impact of the reforms on family Legal Help work for providers with varying case mixes Provider A makes 50 Legal Help claims per year, claiming mainly divorce, private law children and financial provision cases and a single domestic abuse claim. From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for its 1 domestic abuse claim. This is approximately 1% of the value this case mix would currently attract. Provider B makes 100 Legal Help claims per year. These consist of a range of private Additionally 8 claims are for public law cases and 9 are private law family claims containing an element of domestic abuse. From April, this case mix is likely to only attract legal aid funding for its 17 claims relating to public law and domestic abuse. This is approximately 23% of the value this case mix would Provider C makes 200 Legal Help claims per year. These consist of a range of private Additionally 30 claims are for public law cases, 10 are domestic abuse only claims and 6 are private law family claims containing an element of domestic abuse. 2

3 From April this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for its 46 claims relating to public law and domestic abuse. This is approximately 28% of the value this case mix would currently attract Provider D makes 300 Legal Help claims per year. These consist of a range of private Additionally 18 claims are for public law cases, 4 are domestic abuse only claims and 8 are private law family claims containing an element of domestic abuse. From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for its 30 claims relating to public law and domestic abuse. This is approximately 10% of the value this case mix would currently attract Housing By way of example, from April 2013 legal aid will primarily be available for face to face advice in: possession and eviction, including unlawful eviction cases; Statutory homelessness assistance; Housing disrepair posing a serious risk of harm to health or safety Certain Anti-social behaviour orders and injunctions, and Protection From Harassment Act 1997 injunctions; The published Impact Assessments estimate that on average there will be a 40% reduction in the volume of housing Legal Help work funded through legal aid. However, again, the impact will differ depending upon the case mix of the individual provider. The following illustrative examples provide an indication of the impact of the reforms on housing Legal Help work for providers with varying case mixes. Provider A makes 50 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of the Housing category. Included in this are 33 claims that will remain in scope of face-to-face work from April relating to anti-social behaviour, homelessness, possession, disrepair, harassment injunctions and unlawful eviction. From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 33 cases that remain in scope of face-to-face work. This is approximately 63% of the value this case mix would Provider B makes 100 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of legal aid. Included in this are 55 claims that will remain in scope of face-to-face work from April relating to anti-social behaviour, homelessness, possession and disrepair. 3

4 From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 55 cases remaining in scope of face-to-face work. This is approximately 67% of the value this case mix would Provider C makes 200 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of legal aid. Included in this are 116 claims that will remain in scope of face-to-face work from April relating to anti-social behaviour, homelessness, possession, disrepair, harassment injunctions or unlawful eviction. From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 116 cases remaining in scope of face-to-face work. This is approximately 58% of the value this case mix would Provider D makes 299 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of legal aid. Included in this are 185 claims that will remain in scope of face-to-face work from April relating to anti-social behaviour, homelessness, possession, disrepair, harassment injunctions or unlawful eviction. From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 185 cases remaining in scope of face-to-face work. This is approximately 60% of the value this case mix would Immigration & Asylum By way of example from April 2013 legal aid will be available for face to face advice in: Asylum work; and Limited immigration work (including detention and bail matters, certain immigration matters for victims of domestic violence or human trafficking and SIAC cases) The published Impact Assessments estimate that on average there will be a 0% reduction in the volume of asylum Legal Help work and a 92% reduction in the volume of immigration Legal Help work funded through legal aid. However, the impact will differ depending upon the case mix of the individual provider. The following illustrative examples provide an indication of the impact of the reforms on immigration & asylum legal help work for providers with varying case mixes. Provider A makes 99 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of immigration and asylum work. 59 of these cases will remain in From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 59 cases remaining in scope. This is approximately 62% of the value this case mix would 4

5 Conclusion Provider B makes 250 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of immigration and asylum work. 76 of these cases will remain in From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 76 cases remaining in scope. This is approximately 34% of the value this case mix would Provider C makes 496 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of immigration and asylum work. 262 of these cases will remain in From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 262 cases remaining in scope. This is approximately 67% of the value this case mix would Provider D makes 752 Legal Help claims per year, claiming a range of cases across the current scope of immigration and asylum work. 497 of these cases will remain in From April, this case mix is likely to attract legal aid funding only for the 497 cases remaining in scope. This is approximately 60% of the value this case mix would Each of the scenarios given in these examples illustrate the potential effect of the reforms on individual providers with varying case mixes. The published Impact Assessments state that, on average across all Categories of Law, providers are estimated to receive 65% less Legal Help work, however, again this will vary depending on the Categories of Law undertaken and the case mix within the category. 5