Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

That says all we need to say about the state of some of our providers of social welfare advice. Decisions will not be challenged, and individuals will be denied their fundamental economic and social rights, which will eventually lead to a culture of laziness, poor decision making, corner cutting and inefficiency. We are talking about cases in which individuals have been blatantly wrongly assessed. The Daily Mirror investigative team has in the past couple of weeks quantified the scale of failures of state agencies and contractors such as Atos. Through freedom of information requests, the team discovered that 32 people a week die after being certified fit to work. For example, Atos deemed 36-year-old Martina Delaney from Bolton fit for work and her benefits were cut. Her mother, Elizabeth, said:"““She was so worried about losing her flat and she had to sell the family jewellery to pay for the gas and food and never even told us, it would have broken her heart””." They found Martina dead in her bed on 12 March. Citizens Advice told of a warehouse worker whose degenerative lung condition forced him to give up work. A CAB spokesman said:"““His weight had dropped to just seven stone, he had trouble breathing and walking…But in the medical test for Employment and Support Allowance he was awarded zero points and was told that he would be fit to return to work within three months. Before three months was up he died.””" It is to prevent those failures and iniquities that welfare benefits advice is so important. Once internal reviews and first-tier tribunals are exhausted, further appeals can only be on points of law and not on the facts of a case. The Government's acceptance of higher courts and not tribunals is like saying, ““Here's a penthouse, but we've locked the staircase and lifts.”” Far too many disabled people will not get the help they need. Even the Prime Minister admirably stated the difficulty of the system despite all the advantages of his education and life experience. Such advice is all the more necessary as we move to universal credit. The Department for Work and Pensions will have to undertake tens of millions of assessments. As the noble Lord Pannick said, mistakes are inevitable, but when such mistakes are made, it is our duty to ensure that they are put right. It is for that reason that we urge the Government to withdraw their motion to disagree to Lords amendment 168. I note that Liberal Democrat Members have tabled an amendment that would have the same effect as Lords amendments 168 and 169. They have chosen to table it—let me get this right—as a sub-amendment to one of the Government amendments to the objection to two amendments made in another place. I assure our friends from Hansard that I will provide a transcript of that sentence. Let me clear that should amendment (i) to Government amendment (a) be pressed to a Division, we will join the Liberal Democrats in the Lobby. However, voting against the Government's motion to disagree to Lords amendment 169 would have the same effect in full. As hon. Members will know, Standing Orders make it difficult to reach amendments to Government amendments, and the Government's timetabling of the debate makes it doubly difficult. I urge those Liberal Democrat Members to follow through on their good and just amendment by voting to retain Lords amendment 168. Failure to do so might make some conclude that their intention behind tabling their amendment (i) is simply to showboat in an attempt to gain face a fortnight before elections. Finally, Lords amendment 171 deals with children and legal aid. This is the most open-and-shut case of all. Last year, 41,000 children used legal aid as the primary applicant in a civil justice matter. The Government propose, for the main part, to retain legal aid for children. They have said repeatedly that 96% of current spending will be retained, but let me quote Ministers on this. The noble Lord McNally said:"““As far as possible, our intention is that, where children are involved, legal aid will still be provided.””—[Official Report, House of Lords, 7 July 2011; Vol. 729, c. 343.]" The Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Huntingdon (Mr Djanogly), who has responsibility for legal aid, said:"““Legal aid will remain for children in almost all cases””." The Secretary of State for Justice said:"““We're not taking legal aid away from women and children.””" Those are fine words and sentiments with which all hon. Members would agree, but the Ministry of Justice has admitted in a letter to campaigners that the 4% of spending it intends to drop covers 13% of those desperately vulnerable young people. Between 5,000 and 6,000 children a year will not get help in future. Asking children to navigate, without advice or representation, a civil justice system that can be fiendishly difficult even for adults is quite simply wrong. Those children—the 13% disenfranchised by the Government—are the most vulnerable. They are, for the main part, looked after, leaving care or seriously estranged from their families. They have no adult to help them understand the system or know what is happening. Quite simply, without advice, those children would be stranded, miserable and alone. All parties accept that the state must retain its role as the final guardian of the well-being of all children, so why abandon so many of the most vulnerable for a tenth of what the Ministry of Justice spends on outside consultants every year? Children do not have the capacity to resolve complex legal problems. This is a Government whose own ““Positive for Youth”” paper commits them to providing additional support for vulnerable children and young people; a Government whose Minister for children—the Minister of State, Department for Education, the hon. Member for Brent Central (Sarah Teather)—said that she would interpret all new laws through the UN convention on the rights of the child, which clearly states that advice for children on legal issues is a must; and a Government whose minority partner's current youth policy has, as its first point, a commitment to improve young people's access to legal advice. We will seek to divide the House on the Government's appalling decision to oppose Lords amendment 171.