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Carter Review

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his welcome for the report and his hope, which I share, that it will spark a debate on those important issues. I agree wholly that we need to build a system that will last. The increase in legal aid expenditure since 1997, to which he alluded, is not an isolated example. This morning, I looked at the tables in the fundamental legal aid review document, which show that spending also went up exponentially between 1991 and 1996, so it is clear that successive Governments have not managed to control that elusive budget. The hon. Gentleman raises the issue of very high cost cases, and I urge him to read with care—I accept entirely that he has not had the slightest opportunity to do so—what Lord Carter proposes for closer management of such cases, with a higher level of expertise in the LSC to ensure that they are controlled as well as they can be. I accept entirely the hon. Gentleman’s point that all that cannot be done through legal aid alone: there is a serious need for the CPS and the other public agencies he mentioned to consider case management. The Carter review contains a quotation from Sir Igor Judge which gives the judicial attitude to the urgent need for powerful case management. The judiciary are anxious that judges should be free to do that, and of course we entirely encourage it. We are seeking, with the consultation document that will build on Lord Carter’s report, to use the new fixed fee regime that he proposes to try to enhance the ability of the judiciary to manage cases properly. The hon. Gentleman also referred to the frequently expressed criticism of fat cat barristers who earn enormous amounts of money. I have never been fat myself—[Interruption.] Neither metaphorically, nor physically, but I am not sure that the House is interested in that. There is some interesting information about lower level members of the Bar in Lord Carter’s review. He found that 5 per cent. of those with between one and five years’ experience at the Bar were earning £90,000 a year. That seems to be a fine starting salary, although many others do not earn that much. However, that is an issue for those who structure the Bar, and not one that legal aid can tackle directly. I accept that the Bar Council would prefer not to delay the catch-up that it thinks should follow from the fact that graduated fee schemes for one to 10-day cases were fixed in 1997. However, a letter from the council this morning states that, as a result of its negotiations with Lord Carter, it acknowledges that process should occur from 2007. I do not agree with the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald) that the London Criminal Court Solicitors’ Association is right to suggest that the proposals will end recruitment to the public sector. Not a bit of it: he was present at the recent Legal Aid Practitioners Group awards for legal aid lawyer of the year and, like me, can only have been impressed by the calibre of the many excellent young practitioners there. They are fighters, every one of them—much of the time they are fighting us!—and they are coming into the public sector, so I do not think that what the hon. Gentleman said is right. I do not agree either that we are about to hear the death knell of high street solicitors. Much concern was aroused by the interim report, which did us all a huge favour by making us refine our thinking. The process of implementation will need a great deal of consultation and care. It is proposed that I should spend a sizeable part of my summer going around and providing exactly that, although of course people will also be able to correspond about other matters. I heard Greg Powell say on the radio this morning that he thought that the proposals would involve a huge amount of bureaucracy, but the LSC is looking to make savings in that regard worth tens of millions of pounds. It is anxious to have a lighter touch, and of course practitioners want to escape from bureaucracy. The whole point of having fixed fees at the front end of cases across the board is so that there will be no thorny questions about whether a particular mention, application in court or piece of travel and waiting was justified. It seems to me that the fixed fee will mean less bureaucracy. The hon. Gentleman talked about black and minority ethnic practitioners and communities. The LSC can and must use its procurement power to ensure that those communities continue to be served fully and properly by appropriate practitioners. I do not accept that practitioners from the black and ethnic minorities will be squeezed out. Lord Carter received legal advice suggesting that no inappropriately heavy burden would fall on them, but I know that serious concerns have been expressed about that. I had the pleasure of speaking to the annual conference of the Black Solicitors Network, and I took the opportunity to talk to a number of its members. The network represents a very important and dynamic sector of young black entrepreneurs, and we must take good care of them. I assure the House that we are very much apprised of the need to ensure that they have appropriate career opportunities. I can confirm that the report is not the last word on the matter. Lord Carter undertook a very good consultation process that involved all the relevant stakeholders. I know that he spoke to the hon. Member for North-East Hertfordshire, and I believe that he spoke to the Liberal Democrats as well. The confidence that the process has given us means that we are able to take on Lord Carter’s direction of travel, as it were, but with a clear awareness that there is still a good deal of scope for policy development during the consultation that is to follow.