https://www.slab.org.uk/faqs/developing-our-role-in-the-delivery-of-wider-scottish-government-outcomes/
https://www.slab.org.uk/faqs/developing-our-role-in-the-delivery-of-wider-scottish-government-outcomes/
As a public body we have a range of statutory duties and functions. The extent to which our performance of these can or does contribute to wider Scottish Government outcomes and the National Performance Framework (NPF) is dependent on our specific role and particularly the extensive and complex body of current legal aid legislation. This legislation is the foundation of the various legal aid payment schemes that we administer.
The majority of expenditure from the Legal Aid Fund is judicare funding - funding to provide case by case services. The nature of the current legal aid legislation means that this judicare funding is unplanned and largely non-targeted.
This legal aid expenditure and the services it supports can be seen as contributing in a broad sense to the NPF: in particular, respect for the rule of law – one of the three guiding values in the NPF - and the national outcome that people respect, protect and fulfil human rights and live free from discrimination.
However, the mostly unplanned pattern of funding requests and services delivered that is a key feature of the current system means that resources cannot be more purposely directed towards meeting any specific Scottish Government priority.
That current pattern is determined by a combination of members of the public deciding whether to seek help and hundreds of predominantly small firms of solicitors in the private sector deciding whether or not to offer a particular kind of service, whether to act for a person if they ask for assistance and, if so, whether to do so on legal aid.
Each decision by a person to seek help, by a solicitor to offer a service and by SLAB to provide funding means that someone can access an important service. That is of course a positive outcome for each person, and one that contributes to the NPF in a general sense.
In the absence of any ability for either us or Scottish Government to make a conscious decision to direct resources towards specific needs, individuals or strategic priorities, it is much less clear whether this process maximises the contribution of legal aid to the delivery of wider outcomes.
The Legal Aid Review outcomes suggest a more strategic role for SLAB in directing some funding towards particular types of problem, geographic areas or communities, which could enhance both legal aid’s and SLAB’s contributions to the National Performance Framework.
This of course is matter for Ministers and, ultimately, Parliament. In the meantime, we will continue to use the limited levers we have to maximise the legal aid system’s contribution to wider Scottish Government outcomes. We can go some way to target the small amount of the Legal Aid Fund that supports our in-house solicitors in their delivery of casework services to the public, and in the development of grant funding schemes in conjunction with Scottish Government.
The programme of work set out in this plan will ensure that the way we do this is transparent, based on a sound understanding of user needs and the impact of the way we deliver our services on them, and enhances our accountability for the funds we manage.