---

Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Bill [HL]

The Minister is, as always, disarming, but it is more than 25 years since the Royal Commission on Legal Services spelt out in particularity the tests that should be applied to the giving of legal aid in administrative tribunals. Although no one would seriously argue that the quantification of the Government’s commitment to the money necessary to bring those merit tests to fruition could be undertaken by the Minister in advance of the conclusions of the deliberations to which she has referred, it is not clear to me why those merit tests cannot be incorporated into the Bill as principles to guide the tribunals in arriving at decisions about appropriateness. It would be better if that were specifically provided for.