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Criminal Defence Service Bill [Lords]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time. The Bill seeks to establish a legal aid system that balances fairness with administrative simplicity and that is based on affordability yet is sensitive to an applicant’s individual circumstances. In order to achieve that, we will transfer the power to grant legal aid representation from the courts to the Legal Services Commission, and we will introduce a test of financial eligibility. The Bill and the scheme that it seeks to deliver are a straightforward evolution of the founding principles of legal aid as they were first expressed by the Rushcliffe report in 1945 and by the subsequent Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949—introduced by a Labour Government. From its earliest design, legal aid was intended to be a wider expression of the beliefs that lay at the heart of the welfare state. A ““judicare system”” was to be established whereby the services of lawyers could be made available to the poor as well as the rich. The Bill reasserts those founding principles, as well as creating a robust and sustainable legal aid system that is not only capable of responding to the demands of the modern justice system, but of enhancing and supporting it. It also builds on an existing raft of reforms that have already had a significant impact in the area. The Access to Justice Act 1999 modernised the legal aid system and, since then, we have continued to improve and refine the performance of legal aid. But costs have continued to rise: as indeed they have throughout the history of legal aid. In 2004–05, spending on legal aid as a whole exceeded £2 billion, a rise of £513 million since 1997–98. To put it simply, year on year, the cost of legal aid has risen, on average, at almost twice the rate of inflation. That trend cannot be allowed to continue. Since 1997, there has been a large growth in criminal legal aid where expenditure has risen by £458 million. There is little doubt that a good proportion of that spending has proved invaluable in protecting the rights of the vulnerable, ensuring access to justice and maintaining the efficiency of the criminal justice system, but the Government also have a wider responsibility to protect the interests of the poor, the socially excluded and, ultimately, the law-abiding members of society. Legal aid resources are finite and only one part of our social agenda, which includes health and education.