Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, I shall speak briefly in support of Amendment 13, proposed by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd of Berwick, and Amendment 15, tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, both of which would go some way to bring civil legal proceedings relating to clinical negligence back within the scope of the Bill. I welcome the comments made by the noble Lord—my friend, outside the political arena—Lord Cormack and by the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, on the cases that he has been following up. I shall be very interested to hear the replies to them. Having campaigned with the noble Lord, Lord Ashley of Stoke, on the question of thalidomide, many years ago, those comments ring bells. We must ensure that, in drawing up a strict structure which is meant to avoid exceptions, other than those provided for specifically, we do not lose the possibility to secure justice for people who may be, as the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, rightly said, in the same position in this day and age. It is of course welcome news that the Government have conceded bringing cases involving children who have suffered brain damage at birth back within the scope of legal aid, as provided by Amendment 68. That is a significant concession, and I congratulate those who have worked to secure it. As Peter Walsh, chief executive of Action against Medical Accidents, pointed out, that limited step in the right direction makes the decision to keep all other clinical negligence cases out of scope appear even more irrational. Why a distinction should be made between newborn babies and young children, for example, is rather opaque. The Government have questions to answer on that point. On costs, during Committee I cited a report by King's College which argued that proposals to remove clinical negligence cases from legal aid will not save the Government money but will, rather, shift the bill to the NHS. The report claimed that the changes would cost the NHS £28.5 million, which is nearly three times the £10.5 million which would be saved by the Ministry of Justice. The noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace of Tankerness, who was on the government Front Bench at the time, did not address that question in detail. He hid behind the general savings produced by the Bill. I would be very grateful if, in responding to this short debate, he addressed the relationship between the savings and the costs, which were highlighted by the King's College report. That underlines the point on costs made by the noble and learned Lord, Lord Lloyd, in introducing the amendments. We are actually providing for savings. In Committee, I pointed out that under the proposed reforms contained in Part 2, victims of clinical negligence will not have recourse to the no-win no-fee system—a matter raised by others—as the complexity surrounding those cases will prove too risky for most solicitors to take on. The Bar Council has pointed out that it is very unlikely that ““after the event”” insurance will still be available for the purpose of obtaining expert reports. It is difficult to see where victims of clinical negligence are meant to turn for support. I strongly urge the Minister to consider expanding the provisions of Amendment 68 so that all genuine cases of negligence have access to justice.