Policy
30 January, 2006
Specialist Support Service fight back
Questions in Parliament
The recent decision by the Legal Services Commission (LSC) to scrap the Specialist Support Service (SSS) will be the subject of an adjournment debate in the House of Commons. Following a statement from Julie Morgan, MP for Cardiff North, in the House on Thursday 26th, the matter has been allocated to the close of sitting adjournment debate circa 6.30pm on Thursday 2 February.
Mark Atkinson, Head of Government and Parliamentary Relations, at Citizens Advice has written to all SSS contract holders of their intention to brief Julie Morgan ahead of the debate, as well as writing to other MPs to draw attention to the decision and encouraging them to attend the debate. It is also hoped that an early day motion will be tabled, with attempts to seek a Westminster Hall debate and a starred question in the House of Lords.
Additionally, the Law Gazette carried a story last Thursday headlined 'Solicitors attack plan to end LSC support'. Noting that plans to scrap the SSS could free up £2.3million in 2006/07, which in turn could provide just under 9,000 additional acts of assistance or support the expansion of CLS Direct, it also quoted Richard Miller, director of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group as saying:
'This is an appalling decision. It is the one service that can mitigate the very damaging effects of reducing the number of face-to-face services proposed by the CLS strategy. It has been one of the major success stories of the first five years of the LSC.’
For a copy of the Law Gazette story, see Solicitors attack plan to end LSC support
See also the Rightsnet policy news story, Specialist Support Service contracts to end early, 17 January 2006
