Over 400,000 legal aid grants made, as costs increase to £150 million
Board publishes Annual Report 2006-2007

Monday 1 October 2007

APPENDIX: KEY LEGAL AID FACTS AND FIGURES 2006-2007
(Note: the annual report figures are for the year from 1 April 2006 to 31 March 2007).

GRANTS OF LEGAL ASSISTANCE
408,654 grants of legal assistance (advice and assistance and legal aid work) were made in 2006-2007, which is 1% less than 2005-2006. The fall is due to less advice and assistance work.

* criminal legal assistance grants increased by 2% to 278,560. Within this total, the number of summary criminal grants increased by 3%, and solemn criminal legal aid grants rose by 18%.
* there were 119,293 grants of civil legal assistance, a reduction of 7% - although within this total the number of civil legal aid grants increased by 3%, reversing the falls seen in the last three years
* 10,801 grants were made for children’s legal assistance and contempt of court, a rise of 8% from the previous year.

* Over the last five years, the number of grants of legal assistance has fallen by 9%. Most of the fall has been in civil legal assistance. The number of criminal legal assistance grants is 1% higher than five years ago.

COST TO THE TAXPAYER
Legal assistance cost the taxpayer £150.2 million in 2006-2007, an increase of 2%, or £2.3 million on the previous year (£147.9 million). Total expenditure remains slightly lower than in 2004-2005 (£152.4 million), which is when expenditure reached the highest ever level. Expenditure on legal aid was:
* £106.6 million for criminal cases, a 3% increase on the previous year (£104.0 million)
* £39.0 million on civil cases, 1% lower than the previous year (£39.5 million). This includes contributions and expenses received in civil legal aid cases of £11.7 million.
* £4.5 million on children’s legal assistance and contempt of court legal assistance, an increase of 6% on the previous year (£4.3 million)

* over the last five years total expenditure has increased by 11% or £15.0 million. Most of the increase has been because of a 15% or £13.6 million rise in the costs of criminal legal assistance. Civil legal assistance expenditure has increased risen by £0.9 million, or 2%. Expenditure on children’s and contempt legal assistance has increased by 13% or £0.5 million.

LEGAL PROFESSION AND PAYMENTS MADE
The Board’s website www.slab.org.uk includes the list for payments made to all solicitor firms, advocates and solicitor advocates in 2006-2007. Previous years are also available online.

SOLICITOR NUMBERS
Firms of solicitors must be registered with the Board to undertake legal assistance work. In addition, individual solicitors who undertake criminal legal assistance must also be registered. As at 31 March 2007 there were:
* 599 firms and 1,459 solicitors registered to offer criminal legal assistance, both 4% lower than 2006
* 676 firms registered to provide civil legal assistance, 8% fewer than 2006 (solicitors are not registered to undertake civil work, only their firm).

PAYMENTS MADE TO SOLICITORS AND FEE RATES
* payments were 1% lower in 2006-2007 at £122.0 million (£122.7 million in 2005-2006)
* payments over the last five years have increased by 5%, which is £6.1 million more, although payments in the last year are lower than the previous three years

* payments last year for civil legal aid were 2% lower at £16.7 million, but over the last five years are 2% higher.
* payments for criminal legal aid last year increased very slightly at £72.7 million, with an 11% increase, or £6.9 million, over the last five years.

* From 2003 solicitor fees for civil cases have been increased by 21%. A new block fee payment structure (this is not a fixed fee system), developed by the Law Society of Scotland, the Scottish Government and the Board was introduced in October 2003. Fee tables set the structure for payment, with elements of work in civil cases broken into blocks of work, which are then charged at a block unit rate. Currently a block fee unit is £19 - but this is being reviewed. Although there is not an equivalent hourly rate for a block fee, on a time and line basis for cases outside the block fee system, for representation solicitors are paid £68 per hour and £52.60 per hour for non representation work, such as meeting clients.
* In criminal cases, a fixed fee system was introduced in 1999, where solicitors are paid a fee for most summary criminal legal aid cases £500. In solemn criminal cases, an increase in fees was made in 2006 of 8% for advocacy and 12% for all other work. This means a solicitor is paid £49.52 per hour when representing their client in court, and £47.28 per hour for non-advocacy.

* Of the 20 firms of solicitors paid the most in 2006-2007, 14 of these firms were paid a higher amount that the previous year. The highest fee earning firm was Ross Harper at £1.7 million.

ADVOCATES AND SOLICITOR ADVOCATES (COUNSEL)
* payments to advocates and solicitor advocates in 2006-2007 increased by 13% to £20.8 million (from £18.3 million)
* over the last five years payments have increased by 53%, which is £7.2 million higher

* Last year payments to counsel for civil legal aid increased by 7% to £4.9 million, and over the last five years payments have risen 52% or £1.7 million.
* In criminal legal aid last year, payments to counsel increased by 18% to £14.9 million, and over the last five years payments have increased by 58% or £5.5 million.

* Changes to fees for advocates and solicitor advocates have been made over the last few years. Currently, senior counsel representing someone in court in a solemn criminal murder case is paid £900 a day, and a junior advocate is paid £650 a day where they represent a client without senior counsel.

* In 2006-2007 the highest fee earning advocate was Donald Findlay at £358,400 and the highest fee earning solicitor advocate was Iain Paterson, of Paterson Bell Solicitors, who was paid £219,300. This year 10 advocates were paid over £200,000 in fees, compared to 7 the previous year, 61 advocates were paid over £100,000 compared to 43 the previous year and 10 solicitor advocates were paid over £100,000 compared to 7 in 2005-2006.

OUTLAYS
* outlays in 2006-2007 were 8% higher at £18.2 million (from £16.8 million)
* over the last five years outlays have increased by 21%, which is £3.2 million higher.

BOARD SERVICE PERFORMANCE AND COSTS
* the Board surpassed all of its six headline performance indicators, the key measures of its operational performance. The targets balance quality of decision making with speed of processing. Two of the headline targets had been increased for 2006-2007. The Board also achieved 47 of its 48 individual and corporate targets, against tougher targets than the previous year.
* the Board’s administration costs were £12.7 million in 2006-2007, an increase of 4%.

CIVIL LEGAL ASSISTANCE

CIVIL ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE AND ASSISTANCE BY WAY OF REPRESENTATION (ABWOR)
* Solicitors made 8% fewer grants of advice and assistance and ABWOR – 107,970 compared with 117,601 in 2005-2006. This is the seventh successive year these grants fell, and means that over the last five years grants have fallen 28%.
* However, there was a 7% increase in the number of grants of ABWOR for civil matters compared to the previous year, to 3,554. ABWOR increases were in immigration and particularly mental health.

* the cost of civil advice and assistance and ABWOR fell by 7% to £19.2 million.
* the cost of advice and assistance and ABWOR for immigration – which includes asylum as well as work permits and other matters – was 36% lower at £2.3 million (£3.6 million the previous year). Within this, the cost of ABWOR for asylum tribunals almost halved to £0.8 million, as a result of reductions in the number of these grants in previous years.

CIVIL LEGAL AID
* There were 3% more grants of civil legal aid compared to the previous year – 11,323 compared with 10,982. This is the first increase in grants for four years and reverses the falls seen in recent years.
* Over the last five years the rate of reduction has been less - applications have fallen by 15% and grants by 16%.
* The net cost of civil legal aid increased by 5% to £19.8 million, which was £1.0 million more than the previous year.

* Civil legal aid may be free, or someone may have to pay towards the cost of the case.
* Most people granted civil legal aid do not pay a contribution towards the costs. Last year, 25% of people who received civil legal aid had to pay a contribution, with the average amount being £1,034, which was 4% higher than 2005-2006.
* People who received civil legal aid made payments towards the cost of their legal aid totalling £11.7 million, as contributions, expenses or from what they won or kept at the end of a case. This is 37% of the gross expenditure on civil legal aid cases.

CRIMINAL LEGAL ASSISTANCE

CRIMINAL ADVICE AND ASSISTANCE AND ABWOR
* the number of grants by solicitors of advice and assistance including ABWOR for criminal cases was 144,019, 1% fewer than the previous year
* expenditure was almost unchanged at £11.9 million.

SUMMARY CRIMINAL LEGAL AID
* There were 82,686 grants of summary criminal legal aid, an increase of 3% on the previous year. This reverses the slight fall seen the previous year and is now the highest ever level. Over the last five years grants of summary criminal legal aid have increased by 10%.
* Offensive weapons/vandalism/breach of the peace, which accounts for 28% of all summary criminal grants, saw a 2% increase last year, while assault cases, which are 25% of all summary criminal grants, increased by 6%.

* The cost of summary criminal legal aid also rose by 4% to £52.1 million. This is the highest level of expenditure on summary criminal legal aid since 1997-1998. The increase is because of more cases.
* Expenditure on summary criminal legal aid has increased by 13% over the past five years.
* The system of fixed payments continues to ensure general consistency in the costs of individual summary cases from year to year. Last year the average cost of a case was unchanged from the previous year at £645.

SOLEMN CRIMINAL LEGAL AID
* Grants by the courts of solemn criminal legal aid (for the most serious crimes) increased by 18% to 13,898 grants, the highest ever level. The increases are in line with a rise in the number of indictments registered by the courts.
* Over the past five years solemn criminal grants have increased by 27%.
* Assault cases, which account for a third of all solemn grants, increased by 12%, and drugs, which is the next largest category, increased by 24% compared to the previous year. The biggest increase came in offensive weapons cases, which more than doubled from 544 cases in 2005-2006 to 1,194. This rise is because of a new Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service policy of prosecuting offensive weapons cases under solemn procedure rather than summary.

* The cost of solemn criminal legal aid rose by 3%, or £1.1 million to £37.3 million. The increase is due to more cases and a larger number of high cost cases.
* Over the past five years expenditure on solemn criminal legal aid has increased by 20%. The increase in solemn criminal legal aid grants this year will lead to increased expenditure in future years.

PDSO, THE PUBLIC DEFENCE SOLICITORS OFFICE
* In 2006-2007 PDSO handled 1,491 cases, including 77 solemn cases. Over the past five years the number of cases dealt with by PDSO has increased by a third.
* The cost of funding PDSO increased by 9% to £864,000, as it included costs to start up new offices.
* PDSO solicitors are paid an annual salary rather than being paid on a case by case basis in the way that private solicitors are. PDSO solicitors are governed by the same rules as private solicitors.
* The former Deputy Minister for Justice announced on 20 October 2006 that further PDSO offices would be opened. Offices have been opened in Kirkwall in March 2007 and since then in Ayr, Falkirk and Dundee. This adds to the existing offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

CHILDREN’S LEGAL ASSISTANCE
* The number of grants of advice and assistance by solicitors rose by 3% to 5,868 grants. Spending was unchanged at £0.5 million.
* The number of grants of legal aid by the courts increased by 12% compared to the previous year to 4,461 grants, including five appeals (which are decided by the Board).
* The total paid for legal aid for children rose by 6%, to £4.0 million.

VALUE FOR MONEY
* The Board worked closely with the Scottish Executive to develop a programme of legal aid legislative and regulatory changes to meet their Efficient Government legal aid savings targets. These changes, together with improvements to the operation of the justice system, helped to deliver the legal aid savings target of £9 million for 2006-2007. This built on the savings in 2005-2006 of £5.7 million.

* Investigating and pursuing fraud and abuse of legal aid is important in protecting the taxpayer. It is also a protection for the vast majority of legal practitioners who provide a quality legal service with honesty and integrity. The Board has again increased the resources engaged in checking, monitoring and investigations work and during 2006-2007 it:
* made savings and recoveries of over £2.1 million as a result of applicant and solicitor investigations activities
* terminated or refused legal aid in 227 cases as a result of investigations into applicants’ financial circumstances
* reported 30 individuals to the procurator fiscal as a result of which the courts imposed community service orders, fines and compensation orders
* made complaints about two solicitors to the Law Society of Scotland and de-registered two firms and two solicitors from the Criminal Legal Assistance Register.

* In its annual report, the Board reports that, working with the Scottish Ministers’ Civil Recovery Unit, a binding legal agreement has been reached to recover £1.8 million of payments fraudulently obtained by a solicitor, so that there is no loss to public funds. During 2004-2005 investigations by the Board found that a solicitor had fabricated documents to fraudulently obtain £1.8 million over a seven year period from children’s legal aid. Although reported to the police, no action could be taken following the tragic death of the solicitor. The Board conducted a review to ensure the case was an isolated one and to minimise the risk of a reoccurrence.

BACKGROUND ABOUT LEGAL AID
Legal aid is help towards the costs of legal advice and representation, for those who qualify, paid for out of public funds. It is designed to help individuals on low and modest incomes gain access to the legal system. Legal aid may be free, or someone may have to pay towards the cost of their case, for example from the money or property that they win or keep as a result of their legal action. Legal aid is accessed through a solicitor.

There are two main types of legal aid help: advice and assistance and legal aid.

* Advice and assistance covers a wide range of matters, so long as they are matters of Scots law. It pays for advice from a solicitor, but apart from a few exceptions under assistance by way of representation (ABWOR), it will not cover “representation” – that is, putting the case in court.

* Legal aid provides funding for the solicitor to put the case in court and some tribunals. It covers the preparation work, as well as the hearing itself, and can provide funding for advocates, experts and other costs. (Cases often begin with advice and assistance, and legal aid may be the next step if necessary.)

The main types of case that advice and assistance and legal aid can help with are:
* Civil cases –such as divorce and other matters affecting family and children and actions for compensation after an accident or medical negligence.
* Criminal cases – help and advice for someone who has been charged with a criminal offence or needing advice about a criminal matter.
* Children’s cases - under the Children (Scotland) Act 1995. This helps to make sure children are protected and supervised. Legal aid also helps fund appeals against decisions of children’s hearings.

Ministers in the Scottish Government decide legal aid policy. Ministers propose the legislation to set the rules and criteria for the use of legal aid, together with the fees to be paid to the legal profession. The Scottish Parliament makes and changes legislation – including the tests for granting legal aid. These tests are then applied to every single case.

In advice and assistance, solicitors apply the tests, for civil and criminal legal aid the Board applies them, except in some criminal and children’s cases, where the courts decide.

If granted, legal aid is used to pay solicitors, advocates and other costs of the case. The solicitor could be in private practice, a public defender or in a law centre.

The budget for legal aid is different from other public services: it is not a set amount. If someone is granted legal aid, the Scottish Executive will provide the funds to meet the cost of their case. This means we never have to refuse someone legal aid simply because there is no money left to pay for their case.

ENDS

JOURNALISTS PLEASE CONTACT:
Colin Sim tel (direct) 0131 240 2033, or email simco@slab.org.uk

NOTES FOR EDITORS
1. The Board’s Annual Report and information on payments made to all firms of solicitors, advocates and solicitor advocates is available on the Board's website, www.slab.org.uk