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Carter Review (Legal Aid)

I hope that we can all agree about the statement right at the beginning of the Government’s response, where they say that the legal aid system is"““one of the proudest legacies of the progressive post-war Labour governments””." There may be a few dissenting voices, but the legal aid system is indeed a great achievement, and the fact that further money has gone into it over recent years indicates the support that it receives. However, it can also be generally agreed that the overall cost is increasing, and the question before us is how to ensure that the legal aid system offers fair representation across the country, regardless of whether the person seeking representation lives in a large town, a city or the countryside, and that representation is undertaken on a reasonable basis. When it is suggested that changes are made to the way in which the legal aid system works to address those issues, some people will resist those changes for reasons of self-interest. The issue is, however, much larger than simply whether administrative changes can maintain the legal aid system in the way that I have described. The issue that took up a considerable part of the report on the implementation of the Carter review—the question that is at the heart of the proposed changes, whatever else may be contained in the detail—is the method by which any changes may be undertaken. Put simply, the chosen method is a best-value tendering system based on market principles. We have long experience of the process of best-value tendering—and of compulsory competitive tendering before that—particularly in local government services. It is not, therefore, a new concept, although as we know from experience, it does not always turn out to be quite what its proponents thought it was when they introduced it. The Government response errs, however, on the side of suggesting that the principle of the tendering process itself—not any variation of the process based, among other things, on the many lessons that have been learned over the years as a result of the unfolding of the tendering process in various services—will solve a number of the problems. Indeed, the Government state:"““We agree that there may need to be different ways of creating a viable market in different parts of the country: different areas have different conditions…In urban areas where the balance between the number of firms and legal aid clients is strongest we might reasonably expect downward pressure on prices. In rural areas where supply is often weaker and clients are certainly more dispersed, a move to the market will reveal the lowest price at which a sustainable service can be secured.””" I read that extract twice, but I came to the conclusion on both occasions that it appears to say that, where there are few suppliers, the process will reveal the point at which the service will no longer be supplied. That, of course, will be the nub of the issue if this complex method of tendering becomes the chosen instrument by which to make changes and to ensure that supply exists across the country in the way that I have described. There is not just a slight difference or a difference of emphasis, as has been suggested in the quotation I just gave, but an enormous difference between the process in large cities and towns and that which applies in smaller towns and rural areas particularly. There is a smaller number of suppliers, and in some instances just one or two even in quite large communities. We know that there is continuing movement away from the area, and evidence to the Committee indicated a reduction in the number of people who continue to be engaged in supplying legal aid services.