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Criminal Defence Service (Contribution Orders) Regulations 2009

The noble Lord will know—and I certainly know from experience—that costs in the Crown Court are rather higher than costs in the magistrates’ court by a very large multiplier. Indeed, if one looked at the cost of legal aid in the magistrates’ court compared to the Crown Court, one would see that the Crown Court took up a huge amount of criminal legal aid costs, so it is not a direct comparison. Let me not try to rewrite history. The early days of the magistrates’ court scheme did not work particularly satisfactorily. Changes had to be made. It is now up and running well. Those are the total savings at this time. I was asked about the impact on vulnerable defendants. Enforcement action will be taken only against the defendant and each case will be treated on its merits. Proper safeguards exist for vulnerable people. The noble Lord, Lord Thomas, made a point about it being more sensible to assess on conviction. Our experience—and, I think, that of the courts generally—is that recovery from convicted defendants has been administratively cumbersome and produced very few savings for the fund. That has been a disappointment, and so we feel that this new system is appropriate.