---

Carter Review (Legal Aid)

I, too, congratulate the right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed (Mr. Beith), as chairman of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, and all the members of the Committee on producing a detailed, common-sense report. I welcome the Minister to her new post and I hope that she took volume II, in particular, to bed with her as bedside reading. Anyone who has read all the details of the evidence that was given by people who know what they are talking about—I am not a lawyer, so I will not profess to have the detailed expertise of many of those people—can see that the Government response to that well-documented, detailed report is wrong and almost disgraceful. I am disappointed, too, that although a few minor changes were accepted and made, the report did virtually nothing to make the fundamental changes that would have made a difference. Fundamentally, nothing has changed about the underlying flaw in the way in which the fixed fee system will affect the most vulnerable in our society. We have heard a lot today about rural areas, but I want to point out—as I and many other London MPs did in an Adjournment debate on the same topic in this Chamber on 11 January—the particular difficulties and issues in London. We asked the Minister then to consider London in a different way. I looked back on that speech and read the whole debate, and I remember that we went away hoping that there would be some changes in the light of the fact that Members from all parties expressed concerns about the changes and the way in which they were being implemented. We felt that some changes would be made and that the Government would listen. We then saw this report and that little had been changed as a result of it. It has led not only the legal profession but many MPs to question who is ultimately supposed to make such decisions. I am distressed to discover that as an MP for an inner-city seat, where I rely so much on the valuable work done by my law centre and the many solicitors’ firms that work in legal aid, I will end up representing people who will be affected by these changes without having had a chance, in our democracy, to make my views known through a vote. That is wrong, no matter what the rules are about the Legal Services Commission and its being a quango. Ultimately, Parliament should decide on the matter, but it has not had the opportunity to debate and vote on the matter. The Minister’s boss, the new Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, comes from a background that leads him to know a great deal about inner-city areas and the particular and special nature of their multifaceted problems: people with concerns and issues that need legal advice and aid are linked to people with mental health problems, immigration problems and housing problems, which lead to all sorts of other problems. Those are the sort of people who will suffer in inner-city areas such as mine. I want the Minister to tell us, in particular on the question of London and other inner-city areas, whether she thinks, having listened to what everyone has said and having read the report, that she can be absolutely confident that the changes will not affect the most vulnerable. I certainly think that they will and I know that the people who have the experience in my constituency think that they will. Let me repeat what I said in January about the overall legal aid budget. Of course, more money has gone into legal aid. Although a few people laughed, the hon. and learned Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Cox) is right. There are some 3,000 more offences. Many of the people involved in those criminal offences have also been caught up in the net of some of the other issues to do with immigration and mental health problems. Of course that has led to more demand for legal aid. Legal aid solicitors are not being paid more and making huge amounts of money. There is more work—we know that from our surgeries. There is more work, and that relates specifically to some of the changes in the law and the Human Rights Act. It does not mean that we are against the Human Rights Act if we simply point out that it has led to more cases.