Lord McNally promises amendment to controversial regulation
Justice minister Lord McNally has promised Parliament that the government will amend a controversial regulation that makes it “virtually impossible” for people to claim legal aid for judicial review, homelessness and habeas corpus cases.
Although peers passed the Civil Legal Aid (Merits Criteria) Regulations 2012 in the House of Lords this week, Lord McNally gave a promise to the House that reg 53(b) would be amended by April.
Under reg 53(b), the director of legal aid casework must be satisfied that the applicant has “exhausted all administrative appeals and other alternative procedures for challenge before bringing a public law claim”. This gives the director no discretion to grant legal aid, even where the matter is urgent.
According to the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, this would have forced people in urgent need of access to a judge to go through complex complaints procedures first and would delay their case for “months, if not years”.
Lord McNally told the House that the government would bring forward amendments to “introduce discretion into reg 53(b) so that the director of legal aid casework will have the express power to grant legal aid for public law claims, even if the alternative routes have not been exhausted, if he nonetheless considers that such an appeal or procedure would not be effective in providing the remedy that the individual requires”.
Peers also rejected a regulation that would have denied legal aid for people appealing welfare benefits in first-tier tribunals, in a rare fatal defeat of a government regulation.
