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Legal Services Commission confirms cessation of CLS Grants programme from April 2013
On 30 July 2012 the Legal Services Commission (LSC) published a consultation on the future of the Community Legal Services (CLS) Grants. Given the changes to the legal aid landscape and the shift in priorities the consultation proposed that CLS Grants should cease from 1 April 2013, when the remaining 3 grant funding arrangements come to an end. The consultation proposed that no extensions should be given beyond the current funding arrangements and that no further bid round for the CLS Grants should be undertaken. The 3 agencies affected are Advice Services Alliance, Law Centres Federation and the Royal Courts of Justice CAB. There were 38 responses to the consultation.
The LSC has now decided to proceed with its proposals to cease funding CLS Grants from 1 April 2013 when the remaining 3 grant funding arrangements come to an end. No extensions beyond the current funding arrangements will be given and no further funding round for CLS Grants will be undertaken. They claim to have taken into consideration the views expressed in the responses received but in light of the intense pressures on the legal aid budget and the priorities of the Agency, go onto say that they must focus on commissioning and administering a cost effective and good quality legal aid system for eligible clients.
It’s worth noting that none of the responses received agreed with the proposal to cease the CLS Grants, with 11 requesting a funding extension for the current grant holders.
For their full consultation response, see Response to the Consultation on the future of the CLS Grants (pdf)
Legal Action Group blog post on the news @
http://www.legalactiongroupnews.org.uk/government-cuts-support-to-advice-sector/
Jon Robins has written a powerful piece for the Guardian on issues arising from the cessation of these grants.
...the CLS grant ends on March 31st – the day before the cuts in the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (Laspo) come in? “The Ministry of Justice has the responsibility for self-represented litigants,” Alison Lamb, director of the RCJ’s CAB told me last week. “At a time when their numbers are to increase beyond belief, it seems foolish to put the organisation with the expertise and skills at working with that cohort of people at risk.”
Quite, but the MoJ seems to have no intention of honouring any such commitment. According to the LSC consultation, the fate of self-represented litigants is “an ongoing priority for the wider MoJ” but “we have taken the view that this is not core work for the LSC”. As the LSC becomes the Legal Aid Agency, part of the MoJ, at the start of April, it is a meaningless distinction.
Jeopardising a service like RCJ’s CAB at a time on the eve of the implementation Laspo cuts is reckless. The CLS grants funding provides the infrastructure for a major pro bono initiative with involves some 170 lawyers on an advice rota backed by 60 firms and 40 family lawyers. Seven City firms provide £50,000 a year.
Will the City, through its pro bono activities, bail out this much-needed service? “It is a myth to think that the City firms will just step in. It just won’t happen,” says Lamb.
To read the whole piece, see Listen carefully: jeopardising legal advice services is reckless
Lord McNally in the Lords yesterday on the rationale for ending of CLS Grants funding ...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldhansrd/text/130129-0001.htm#13012966000409
Hmmm the word ‘numpty’ springs to mind.