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Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

This is partly my fault. I have just realised that Amendments Nos. 57 and 58 are in the same group as Amendment No. 56, and I neglected to speak to them. So I think I am the source of the noble Baroness’s confusion, for which I apologise. I will quickly speak to those two amendments to allow the noble Baroness to come back on the whole group. I am in two minds about whether it is necessary to put Amendment No. 58 in the Bill because I think that it is self-evident that the Government have to meet that criterion anyway. It would be helpful if she could confirm that. On Amendment No. 57, the noble Baroness will be aware that in certain tribunals legal aid is already available—for example, the Lands Tribunal and two or three others. But it is not generally available in tribunals and she will be alert to the fact that institutions such as the Law Society have been pressing for some time for a general provision to allow legal aid to be available in front of tribunals in certain circumstances. The Government are currently wrestling with a number of problems concerning legal aid. I am aware that it is a highly sensitive area and that there may be some reticence in the Lord Chancellor’s Department about giving any sort of undertakings about legal aid at the Dispatch Box. There seems to be some merit in having a clause— even if the criteria are extremely strict—which would allow legal aid in exceptional cases in all tribunal cases. I would be interested to know the Government’s formal view on that point.