My Lords, I thank the Minister for introducing the order. No one could have done it with more clarity than he has. I hope he will forgive me: while I of course welcome the small but important improvements the order represents, they are in reality just a tiny step and a little progress in dealing with the depressingly large picture of the decimation of an important part of our legal system, namely social welfare law.
That decimation occurred when the coalition Government put together, against all-party opposition and many defeats in your Lordships’ House, the Act of Parliament known as LASPO. That Act, which, ironically, came into force almost exactly 10 years ago today, has arguably done more harm than any other piece of legislation over the last number of years. No wonder the Liberal Democrats, who supported it as part of the coalition, have rightly distanced themselves from it. I detect that the governing party is perhaps just beginning to show, in instruments such as this, that it realises how much harm that Act has done in some areas.
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The noble and learned Lord the Minister cannot be blamed in any way at all. He was certainly nowhere near the scene of the crime. Indeed, I suspect—he will know better, of course—that most distinguished lawyers like him have, over the years, wondered why Part 1 of this Act was ever brought forward.
By taking social welfare law out of the scope of legal aid, the Government saved a large amount of Ministry of Justice money but a very small amount of public money—£350 million out of a Ministry of Justice budget of £2.1 billion. However, the price was, and still is, that many hundreds of thousands of people who under the previous system, which was far from perfect, could obtain early advice and, if need be, representation on legal issues such as welfare benefits, debt, housing and immigration, now just cannot do that, unless they can afford it. The figures are staggering. By 2016-17, the number of civil legal aid matters initiated was down by 84% from 934,000 to 147,000. Certificates for representation were themselves down by 36%. This meant that citizens could not get the advice at the time when they needed it. It meant they had—this needs to be said—no access to justice.
I looked at a passage that the Minister himself referred to in the Explanatory Memorandum to this order, in Paragraph 7.2, which states:
“The Government carried out a Post-Implementation Review … of LASPO in 2019, which assessed the impact of the policies against the original objectives. Broadly, the PIR found that whilst the objective in relation to reducing legal aid spend had been met, the reforms that removed areas of early civil legal advice from scope of legal aid resulted in a lack of early intervention in social welfare. It also suggested that whilst this saved money on legal aid, ultimately these costs have been shifted elsewhere, as relatively minor legal problems can escalate and cluster into more serious problems.”
If I may say so, that puts it extremely well. A government document says those words—and it is so different in context and tone from the words used when the original White Paper came out and when the Government put forward the Bill that became LASPO.
It seems that, at long last—much too late—the Government have understood what is wrong with the legislation. That is why I have so much support for the small step that is being taken in this order. The introduction of the housing loss prevention advice service is welcome, particularly because it will provide some crucial early legal advice on social welfare issues, welfare benefits and, in this case, debt. It will also retain the invaluable duty service, on the day and in court, which I saw many years ago as the Legal Aid Minister.
In my view, the Government are definitely moving on this issue. I am also conscious of the pilots that are taking place as we speak. This is largely being done because of the influence of the Minister and his predecessor in this House. But—and it is a big “but”—the speed of movement is very slow.
In supporting these regulations, I ask the Minister to invite his staff to take from the shelf The Right to Justice, which is one of many reports over the last number of years—it may be getting a little dusty now, because it is a number of years old. Although I was certainly not a major part of it, I was privileged to be the chair of the commission that produced that document. I invite the Minister, and perhaps ask him to invite his
Secretary of State, to read its very sensible and common-sense suggestions, particularly on these matters. That is all I want to say. I know I have gone on for quite a long time, but this is an important matter and, in its small way, this is an important order.