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Carter Review (Legal Aid)

I wanted to make a few comments before dealing with specific issues, but my hon. Friend has raised an important one about the impact on black and minority ethnic providers in inner cities. She made her point particularly powerfully. I must be slightly careful what I say; I am enough of a lawyer not to go into too much detail when a matter is before the court. There is no doubt that a lot of solicitors—16 per cent.—are black and minority ethnic. The majority work for white-run firms, if I can put it crudely, not black-run ones. Sixteen per cent. is greater than the proportion of black and minority ethnic people in the population, so there is a great deal to be proud of in having so many in the profession. The proposals for a minimum contract size will have little or no adverse impact on individual BME solicitors. My hon. Friend is making a point about the proposals’ impact on small firms, but the Government have not yet decided to introduce a minimum contract size. I accept that doing so could have an adverse impact on firms that do less work—that is common sense—but we have made no decision to do so, and we are continuing to listen. When she was the Minister responsible, the Solicitor-General—she has moved on to greater things—did something that I am sure everyone would agree with, whatever they think of what she might have said in previous debates: she went out and consulted extensively with the profession during the gestation of the proposals. I accept that hon. Members and the profession do not necessarily like the prescriptions that she came up with, but she and the Government consulted extremely widely about them, and we wish to continue to do so. I want to make it absolutely clear that the new ministerial team will be listening as we continue to develop the proposals, because we want to listen to what people have to say. The right hon. Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed and others mentioned the impact on firms in rural areas. In respect of civil and family legal aid, the hon. and learned Member for Torridge and West Devon (Mr. Cox) made a point about advice deserts, as did one or two others. Some 93 per cent. of the population live within five miles of specialist legal aid providers. There is no evidence that we have deserts. That does not mean that firms will not merge or decide to stop doing legal aid work; I accept that such issues may well arise, and we need to keep a close eye on them. The last thing that we want is for advice deserts to develop. We are trying to ensure that the money we spend, which has been increasing, is spent properly on helping as many people as possible to get advice for their legal problems.