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	The Department's Aim and Objectives
	Departmental Objectives and PSA targets TABLE 2: Judicial officers in post TABLE 3: Number of judicial appointments TABLE 4: Time intervals in magistrates' courts Objective 1 Objective 2 Objective 3 Objective 4 Objective 5 Objective 6

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>The present PSA targets were set in support of the Department's Aim and Strategic Objectives developed in 1998. In late 1999, however, the Department redrafted its Strategic Objectives to reflect the change in agenda following the Modernising Justice White Paperand other initiatives. For the purposes of this Report, however, progress against PSA targets must be measured in relation to the old Strategic Objectives, which are set out below:

The Department's Aim and Objectives

The aim of the Lord Chancellor's Department is justice

1. The priority for the Lord Chancellor's Department is to contribute to the Government's commitment to fairness, growth and opportunity by introducing a programme of reforms to provide a modern, fair and efficient system of justice which operates in the public interest and ensures value for money for the taxpayer.

   Strategic objectives

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2. The Department set six strategic objectives¹ in 1998-99 to achieve this aim:

   • > To ensure that civil and family law is simple, clear and responsive to the needs of society; and to contribute to the development of the criminal law.

   • To enable the Lord Chancellor to appoint or recommend for appointment sufficient numbers of judges, magistrates and other judicial postholders of the right quality and to safeguard their constitutional independence.

   • To facilitate the fair, speedy and effective resolution of disputes, ensuring that costs and procedures are proportionate to the issues at stake.

   • To enable criminal justice to be dispensed fairly, effectively and without undue delay, promoting confidence in the rule of law and contributing to the Government's aim of reducing crime and the fear of crime.

   • To support family relationships and enable disputes relating to their breakdown to be resolved with the least damage and stress to those concerned, and contribute to the Government's objective of helping to build strong families.

   • > To ensure the availability of cost-effective, quality-assured legal services to those who need them, within the resources available, and develop a Community Legal Service, contributing to the Government's aim of combating social exclusion.

3. In meeting these objectives the Department will operate efficiently and effectively within the available resources. The Department's aims and objectives, and the performance measures against which its success will be judged, are consistent with the unifying aims and objectives for the criminal justice system to which all criminal justice agencies will work.
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   Departmental Objectives and PSA targets

   Summary of progress

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4. The Department is committed to modernising the civil justice framework and to reducing the delay, cost, complexity, uncertainty and the scope for unfairness in the system. A clear legal framework with cost-effective remedies helps both the public to resolve disputes, and the wider economy by encouraging business confidence and lowering the costs of business. The Department's implementation of the civil justice reforms introduced new unified Civil Procedure Rules which place a greater emphasis on active judicial case management to ensure cases are dealt with in ways which are proportionate to the value of the claim and the issues at stake.

5. The Department is taking forward a programme of major reforms to the legal aid system, in order to improve access to quality-assured legal services while ensuring best value for public money. This will be achieved through the Community Legal Service which will make publicly funded legal services work in partnership with the voluntary sector and the private market; direct public funding to priority needs; set a firm budget for civil and family work, and contract for quality assured services at agreed prices.

6. The Government's aims for the criminal justice system are to reduce crime and the fear of crime, and their social and economic costs; to dispense justice fairly and efficiently, and to promote confidence in the rule of law. The Department has been working in partnership with the other criminal justice Departments and their agencies to achieve these aims; in particular working to reduce delays in the criminal courts; improving the service to victims and witnesses and increasing the effectiveness of enforcement.

7. The key measures (Output Performance Analysis (OPA) measures) and targets for achieving the Department's objectives are set out below, together with a report on progress against them.
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   Report on progress

   Objective 1

   >To ensure that civil and family law is simple, clear and responsive to the needs of society; and to contribute to the development of the criminal law.
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   Civil law reform

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8. The Trustee Delegation Bill and Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Bill were taken through Parliament to Royal Assent during 1999. The Trustee Bill was introduced in January 2000, and is proceeding through Parliament. Proposals for legislation enabling commonhold are well in hand, and work has started to enable electronic conveyancing. New rules for defamation procedures, enabling summary proceedings and the offer and acceptance of amends in appropriate cases have been introduced. Consultation papers are in preparation concerning abuses of defamation procedures and the arrangements for calculating discount rates on damages awards. The Department participated in the successful completion of a Council of Europe Convention concerning the application of civil law to acts of corruption.
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   Statute Law Database

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9. The Statutory Publications Office (SPO) is responsible for delivering the Statute Law Database, which will provide a computerised version of the United Kingdom Statute Book in its up-to-date form. The database is the Statute Book revised to 1 February 1991 and all subsequent Westminster legislation. From the end of April 2000, groups of Acts will be brought completely up to date and be made available to end users. The end user facility using Internet technology has already been released to selected Government users.

   Objective 2

   >To enable the Lord Chancellor to appoint or recommend for appointment sufficient numbers of judges, magistrates and other judicial postholders of the right quality and to safeguard their constitutional independence.

10. The Lord Chancellor is committed to an open and accessible appointments system which is better understood by the public and in which everyone who is eligible has a fair chance to secure appointment. An example of this commitment was the publication of the first ever Judicial Appointments Annual Report in October 1999. The Report, which covers the period 1 April 1998 to 31 March 1999, contains comprehensive information about how the judicial appointments system works and gives details of the changes the Lord Chancellor has made, and plans to make, to the system. Further information about the appointments system is available in a new booklet which was published in March 1999. Both the booklet and the Annual Report are also available on the Internet at www.lcd.gov.uk.

11. Full statistics on the numbers of appointments can be found in the Judicial Appointments Annual Report. The Maximum Number of Judges Order 1999 increased the maximum number of High Court judges to take account of the expected effect on the High Court Bench of new legislation such as the Human Rights Act 1998. In summary, the numbers of appointments and judges in post, including forecasts, are as follows:

    TABLE 2: Judicial officers in post

    TABLE 3: Number of judicial appointments

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    Equal opportunities

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12. The Lord Chancellor's policies are designed to encourage all eligible candidates to apply, and he wants to see more applications from those currently under-represented on the bench such as women, members of the ethnic minority communities and people with disabilities. During 1999 he addressed the Disability Law Conference and the Ethnic Minority Lawyers' Conference and attended the Woman Lawyer Forum.

13. The judicial work-shadowing scheme was launched in March 1999 allowing prospective applicants the chance to see what it is like to sit judicially. A full report on the scheme will be provided in the next Judicial Appointments Annual Report. The responses from those who have taken part to date have been very positive.

14. Where possible, the appointments procedures are applied flexibly. For example, the Lord Chancellor has recently approved the appointment as a 'permanent part-time' district judge of a person who was unable to accept an offer of full-time appointment because of her responsibilities as a carer which had arisen since her application. In addition, for the deputy district judge competition advertised in December 1999 the normal upper age limit was raised from 60 to 65 to allow more senior practitioners to apply and thereby provide an additional flexible judicial resource to handle work flowing from the civil procedure reforms.

15. The figures for 1998/99 show that the proportions of female and ethnic minority appointments to the judiciary compare favourably to the proportionate numbers for those groups in the pool of lawyers with similar experience to first level appointments. There were, on average, 6 applicants for every vacancy for professional judicial posts filled by means of open competition, and of 634 such appointments, 149 (23.5%) were women; 34 (5.4%) were ethnic minority practitioners and 294 (46.4%) were solicitors (37.1% were barristers, 5.7% were Queen's Counsel and 10.9% were not practising lawyers - mostly holders of other full-time judicial appointments).

16. The Lord Chancellor has welcomed the report of Sir Leonard Peach whom he commissioned to carry out an independent scrutiny of the procedures for appointing judges and Queen's Counsel to see whether there is scope for further development. He has initiated an action programme to give effect to developments in the procedures reflecting the report's recommendations. He is also dealing with the report of the Joint Working Group on Equal Opportunities in Judicial Appointments and Silk, which comprises members of both branches of the legal profession. In addition the Department will be considering the results of research which considers the factors that affect women and ethnic minority practitioners when considering whether to apply for appointment.
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    Training and development

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17. The pilot scheme monitoring the performance of deputy district judges was fully implemented on the Wales and Chester Circuit on 1 November 1999. Appraisal reports completed after that date on the performance of deputies are to be used as part of the appointments process. The scheme is to be introduced into another Circuit in 2000/2001 and will be implemented throughout the rest of England and Wales in 2001/2002.

    >Judicial Studies Board

18. The Judicial Studies Board (JSB) provides training for judges and advises on the training of lay magistrates and judicial officers in tribunals. It publishes an annual report on its activities each June. During the year, the JSB completed its programme of training in the civil procedure reforms which came into force in April 1999. The largest training programme that the JSB has ever undertaken, on the impact of the incorporation of the European Convention on Human Rights into United Kingdom law, began in January 2000 and will be completed before the Human Rights Act 1998 comes into force in October 2000. The JSB supplements its training seminars with written guidance to the judiciary. In July 1999, it published new Specimen Directions for judges sitting in the Crown Court. In September 1999, it issued the first section of the Equal Treatment Bench Book, a guide to judges on all aspects of equal treatment in courts and tribunals. This guidance revised and updated material first published in 1994 as the Handbook on Ethnic Minority Issues.
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    Senior appointments

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19. One of the many changes which the Lord Chancellor made to the judicial appointments system was to advertise for posts for the High Court Bench. 87 candidates responded to the first advertisement inviting applications which appeared in February 1998. Of those, 5 were appointed. The Lord Chancellor reserves the right to recommend for appointment practitioners and Circuit judges who do not apply and 6 have been invited to accept appointment since that date. Applications are again being invited in 2000.
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    Unification of the stipendiary bench

     

20. The Access to Justice Act 1999 provided for the unification of the metropolitan and provincial stipendiary benches into one national bench under a single judicial office-holder. The new national head will be called the Senior District Judge (Chief Magistrate) and will be assisted by a Deputy Senior District Judge (Magistrates' Courts). Unification is expected to take place in Spring 2000 when all stipendiary magistrates will become known as District Judges (Magistrates' Courts) and will also be able to exercise national jurisdiction for the first time. This will mean that they will be able to sit in every Commission area and at any magistrates' court in England and Wales in order to facilitate the speedy and efficient execution of justice. The Lord Chancellor is expected to announce that a District Judge (Magistrates' Courts) will be attached to each Commission area, including those where one is not presently permanently based.
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    Tribunals

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21. A major area of work in the last year has been meeting the needs for appointments to tribunals in the new Appeals Service (formerly the Independent Tribunal Service) under which the former five separate jurisdictions in the area of social benefit claims have been amalgamated into a unified system. This required the reappointment of 626 legal members and the interviewing and appointment of 680 lay and 1,011 medical members. In addition, a new recruitment competition for further identified legal vacancies was held.

22. Under the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999 both Immigration Adjudicators and the Immigration Appeal Tribunal (IAT) are to have enhanced powers and much greater flexibility in the handling of their work. The Government remains committed to strengthening this jurisdiction in order to dispose of cases more effectively and efficiently. The IAT has been expanded significantly and for the first time the appellate body has a High Court judge as its President. The Act also creates the Immigration Services Tribunal which will hear appeals against decisions of the Immigration Services Commissioner relating to the regulation of those who provide immigration advisory services. The Act provides for panels of legally qualified and lay members of the Tribunal to be established.

23. In addition, other legislation in the current year created a number of new tribunals. The Financial Services and Markets Tribunal (FINSMAT), brought into being through Treasury sponsored legislation, is to become an LCD administered tribunal running alongside the existing VAT and Duties Tribunal. The Protection of Children Act Tribunal (POCAT) is to be jointly sponsored by the Departments for Education and Employment and Health and will deal with appeals from those persons who might be disqualified or barred from working in schools.
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    Queen's Counsel

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24. In 1999, 69 Queen's Counsel (Silks) were appointed from among a total of 553 applications. Applications were again invited in September 1999 for appointment in 2000; these appointments will be announced on Maundy Thursday 2000. Just under 20% of applications received this year were on forms downloaded from the Department's website. The Access to Justice Act 1999 permitted the introduction of an application fee to remove the element of public subsidy of the Silk appointment system; the fee payable by applicants in 1999 was £335.
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    Complaints handling

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25. Complaints about the personal conduct of members of the judiciary are dealt with by a dedicated team who make thorough enquiries on the Lord Chancellor's behalf. In the period between August 1998 (when new internal arrangements for handling such complaints came into force) and December 1999 the Lord Chancellor received a total of 3,903 complaints about members of the judiciary. The majority of these related to judicial decisions which cannot be investigated. Of the remainder, 367 were about personal conduct. In 282 of these cases, after the complainants gave their consent, the Lord Chancellor approached the judge concerned for his or her response. On 13 occasions he saw fit to take further action, either by writing to the judge or by arranging for him or her to be seen by officials.
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    Lay magistracy

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26. The Lord Chancellor considered the responses received to the consultation paper on political balance, which was mentioned in the last Departmental Report. Whilst most respondents favoured removing political affiliation as a balancing factor, no suitable alternative was found. The Lord Chancellor therefore reluctantly decided that political balance should remain but that work should continue on finding a better measure of social balance.

27. A national recruitment campaign was conducted during March and April 1999 to raise the profile of the magistracy and to increase awareness that 'ordinary' people could apply. Over 15,000 enquiries were received. It is too soon to tell how many of these will lead to applications for appointment.

28. There are now nine visually impaired magistrates in post as part of a pilot project which tests the practical difficulties and the public perception of such appointments. Early indications are that those appointed are doing well. The Lord Chancellor hopes to decide on the success, or otherwise, of the pilot this year. In 1998 the Lord Chancellor appointed 1,414 magistrates (710 men and 704 women). 6.5% of all appointments were from ethnic minorities.

29. The Lord Chancellor has given his backing to a standard training programme for new members of his Advisory and Sub-Committees on Justices of the Peace, which recommend people for appointment as magistrates to him. The primary aim of the training will be to equip members with interviewing skills. It will also give advice on handling issues where a magistrate's conduct is called into question.

30. For the future, the Lord Chancellor is concerned that increasingly magistrates find it difficult to secure time off to sit on the bench. He is considering what action he may take to ease these difficulties.
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    Report on progress

    Objective 3

    >To facilitate the fair, speedy and effective resolution of disputes, ensuring that costs and procedures are proportionate to the issues at stake.
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    Reforming the civil justice system

31. The key task for the Department in the area of civil justice has been modernisation of the civil justice system. The Lord Chancellor announced his decision to proceed with fundamental reform in October 1997, setting a target for delivery of the first phase by April 1999, which became one of the Department's PSA targets.

32. The Department's aim for civil justice was to facilitate the fair, speedy and effective resolution of disputes, ensuring that costs and procedures are proportionate to the complexity and importance of the issues at stake.

33. The objectives for the new system are that it is to be quicker, simpler, less costly, fairer and more certain than its predecessor.

34. The first phase was delivered on 26 April 1999 introducing a unified procedural code for the High Court and county courts.

35. Tasks completed to deliver the reforms included:

    • settling policy and developing new procedures to meet the objectives, ahead of instructing lawyers to draft new rules of court for consideration by the Civil Procedure Rules Committee

    • building partnerships with the judiciary and other stakeholders to promote the reforms, to encourage early preparation for their introduction and to facilitate the transition

    • maximising the potential of new technology by publicising the reforms and the materials to support them on the Department's website.

36. Since April 1999, work on further reform and on plans for the evaluation of the impact of reform has continued.

37. The Access to Justice Act 1999 contains provisions to reform the system of civil appeals. These came into effect on 27 September 1999.

38. It would be premature to claim that the civil justice reforms are achieving their objectives. However, anecdotal evidence is extremely positive. There seems to have been a real shift in litigation culture towards a more collaborative and less combative approach. Nevertheless, with such fundamental reform, and with a large number of transitional cases still in the system, it will be 12 - 18 months before definitive evaluation will be possible. A research project has been set up to ensure that the Department can establish whether or not the changes are effective, and what future action may be required if they are not.

39. The Department's PSA targets for civil justice for the period ahead require delivery of a more effective enforcement system from November 2001 and unified procedures for housing and land cases by April 2002. These targets support the Department's new Strategic Objective 4 (see Chapter 2 below).

40. Milestones for, and on route towards, the implementation of further changes include:

    • completion of the review of enforcement in June 2000

    • issue of a White Paper laying out proposals for primary legislation and delivery of service in September 2000

    • consultation on proposed housing and land procedures beginning in Summer 2000. Progress being made on housing issues is likely to mean changes can be implemented ahead of the Public Service Agreement target of April 2002.

41. Enforcement and housing and land procedural reforms are headline objectives for the Department but there are other areas of civil justice remaining to be tackled. The programme in the year ahead includes:

    • introduction of new rules governing civil appeals and group litigation on 2 May 2000

    • consideration of the recommendations of Sir Jeffery Bowman's review of the Crown Office List and the introduction of new rules governing judicial review cases, to support the implementation of the Human Rights Act in October 2000

    • introduction of new rules governing specialist jurisdictions

    • public consultation on proposals for representative claims in the first half of 2000.

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    Fixed trial costs in the fast track

42. Fixed costs for fast track trials were introduced in April 1999. Consultation on some aspects of pre-trial costs procedure and changes to the indemnity principle closed on 25 June 1999. The Lord Chancellor has decided that further progress in making costs more predictable and affordable in the fast track should await work to establish what the real costs under the new procedures are, and be considered in the light of other related initiatives and developments, including new types of insurance to cover legal costs, the reforms of conditional fee arrangements, the recoverability of success fees under those arrangements and of premiums for insurance to cover legal costs.
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    Alternative Dispute Resolution

43. A discussion paper was published in November 1999 which explored various aspects of ADR in its widest sense. Further work in the year ahead includes:

    • improved guidance on dispute resolution published by July 2000

    • pilot studies into most effective forms of ADR in 2000/02.

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    Devolution

44. Following the establishment of the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, the Department has worked with Welsh and Scottish colleagues to agree a concordat setting out a framework for a co-operative working relationship with the new institutions. The Department will monitor how well this framework works in practice and will propose improvements as needed. The Department has also made detailed preparations to ensure that courts in England and Wales, particularly in the principality, are ready to hear court cases relating to devolution matters. The Department will be monitoring the way in which these arrangements work and making improvements as necessary.

    Objective 4

    >To enable criminal justice to be dispensed fairly, effectively and without undue delay, promoting confidence in the rule of law and contributing to the Government's aim of reducing crime and the fear of crime.

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    Aims for criminal justice system

45. The Government's aims for the criminal justice system are to reduce crime and the fear of crime, and their social and economic costs; and to dispense justice fairly and efficiently, to promote confidence in the rule of law. The Government intends to modernise the criminal justice system, to:

    • eliminate unnecessary delays

    • improve services to victims and witnesses

    • enable the sentences of the courts to be enforced more effectively

    • ensure that the system works as a coherent whole, and that its component parts are managed efficiently.

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    Reducing delay

46. There was a 4% decrease in the number of outstanding committals for trial in the Crown Court at the end of March 1998 compared with the end of March 1997, despite a 5% increase in committals for trial over the same period.
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    Crime and disorder

47. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 contained provisions to reduce delays in the criminal courts. Statutory and non-statutory measures designed to reduce delay in the magistrates' courts were piloted in six areas from October 1998 to March 1999. The pilots were designed and steered by the Reducing Delays Sub-Group of the Trials Issues Group (TIG), chaired by the Department. Each area established a local inter-agency group to implement the pilot measures. The pilots were evaluated by independent consultants. Ministers accepted the recommendations of the consultants and the measures were rolled out nationally on 1 November 1999. On the same date, the six original pilot areas began the pilot of statutory time limits in the youth court. These pilots will continue for eighteen months in order to take account of the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights in October 2000. The six areas are continuing to pilot the 'sending' of indictable-only cases to the Crown Court. This is an expedited procedure designed to get these cases before a judge who will then exercise firm management of the case. These pilots ended in December 1999 and will be evaluated this year.
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    Youth justice

48. Youth justice is the Government's highest priority in the field of law and order. The Department has worked with the Home Office, Youth Justice Board, and other Government Departments to reform the youth justice system, and in particular to reduce delays. The Department has been instrumental in developing data systems to measure the achievement of the Government's pledge to halve the time from arrest to sentence for persistent young offenders from 142 days to 71 days, and to assist courts locally to manage cases more effectively. The Department has promoted fast-tracking for all persistent young offenders in both the magistrates' court and the Crown Court. New youth justice measures in the Crime and Disorder Act completed piloting and preparations were made for implementation nationwide in 2000. Pilots of statutory time limits were commenced in the youth courts in October 1999. Preparations were made for piloting referral orders under the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act.

49. The two 'demonstration projects' sponsored by the Department as part of the Government's programme to change the culture of the youth court, which began in October 1998, were extended until March 2000. These will help develop good practice on greater openness, talking directly to the defendant and his supporters, better feedback on the effectiveness of sentencing, and a less adversarial court room environment.
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    New procedures for reducing delay

50. Sections 2, 3 and 4 of the Magistrates' Courts (Procedure) Act 1998 were brought into force on 1 September 1998. Section 2 simplifies and streamlines the procedure for proving previous convictions for motoring offences. Section 3 saves police and court time by simplifying the procedure for issuing a warrant of arrest to require the attendance of a convicted defendant before the court when it is considering disqualifying the defendant from driving. Section 1 of the Magistrates' Courts (Procedure) Act 1998 was brought into force by Order on 4 May 1999 together with new court forms. The Department issued guidance on the new procedure for use by the courts, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
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    Victims and witnesses

51. The Department has continued to work with other criminal justice agencies to develop an improved service to victims and witnesses and to implement and monitor the standards of witness care at a local level. It has worked with other agencies on pilot projects for a 'One Stop Shop' and the use of Victims' Statements. The findings were discussed at a special criminal justice conference in September 1999.

52. The Department is working closely with other agencies to implement the recommendations of the Speaking up for Justice report, in particular, by providing facilities for vulnerable or intimidated witnesses to give their evidence by TV links to courtrooms. Most of the special measures will be implemented in the Crown Court by the end of 2000 and in magistrates' courts by Spring 2003.
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    Video links

53. The Department has worked closely with the Prison Service in piloting video links between prisons and magistrates' courts for preliminary hearings for those defendants held in custody. Evaluation of the pilots proved successful and an implementation programme for extending them will start in 2000. A pilot was also conducted at a Crown Court centre.
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    Magistrates' Courts Witness Service

54. The Department has worked closely with the Home Office and Victim Support in working up details for the extension of the successful Crown Court Witness Service into the magistrates' courts. The aim is for all magistrates' courts to have a service by April 2002.

55. A joint performance management survey to monitor witness attendance and waiting times is carried out by the Department twice a year on behalf of the Trials Issues Group (TIG). Results are fed back to the local inter-agency TIG groups so that they might plan ways in which waiting times and the unnecessary attendance of witnesses can be reduced. A good practice guide was issued in January 2000.

56. The Department has worked with other criminal justice agencies in introducing standard procedures for the arrangements for the attendance of interpreters in investigations and proceedings within the criminal justice system. The agreement is being monitored by the TIG Witness Care sub-group.
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    Effective sentencing

57. Work was concluded on the initial round of appointments to the Sentencing Advisory Panel. Following an open competition and consultation with the Lord Chief Justice and Home Secretary, the Lord Chancellor appointed the Chairman and ten members with effect from 1 July 1999. Two further appointments are to be made.

58. Work on preparing for the transfer of responsibility for warrant execution from the police to the magistrates' courts continues. To enable the courts to take on this work, the Access to Justice Act contains provisions which will give civilian enforcement officers and private enforcement firms employed by the courts, wider and clearer powers to execute warrants. These provisions are to be brought into force in April 2001.

59. Work is continuing on implementing arrangements for the computerised transfer of data on convictions of operators of heavy goods vehicles or passenger service vehicles from magistrates' courts to the Traffic Commissioners.
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    A more coherent criminal justice system

60. All of the criminal justice departments and their agencies are working together more closely than before to achieve the two overarching aims for the whole system, namely to:

    • reduce crime and fear of crime, and their social and economic costs, and

    • dispense justice fairly and efficiently and to promote public confidence in the rule of law.

61. Joint planning arrangements have been set up between the Department, the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). The Department plays an integral part in these arrangements which function at various levels from the Ministerial Steering Group through to official level working groups.

62. The first Strategic and Business Plan for the criminal justice system was published at the end of March 1999. Since then, work has been taken forward on an inter-agency basis to develop performance measures and targets.

63. The Department continues to be actively involved in the work of the Trials Issues Group (TIG), providing the Chair and secretariat support to the Group as well as the Chair and secretariat of three sub-groups. During 1998/99, TIG has been responsible for taking forward a varied programme of work including the Narey pilots to reduce delay, consideration of a number of the recommendations of the Glidewell review of the CPS and various initiatives designed to improve the position of witnesses, such as the joint performance management witness attendance survey (see paragraph 55 above).

64. The Department has also provided joint secretariat support (with the Home Office) to the Criminal Justice Consultative Council and a recently established sub-group on race, which promotes co-operation between criminal justice agencies. During 1999, the Department took part in a trilateral review of local co-ordination arrangements which led to the establishment of 42 new Strategy Committees (based on police force areas).

65. The Libra project will deliver modern IT services to the magistrates' courts. The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract was awarded in December 1998. The services include a new standard core system and full office automation. The service will also provide electronic links to all the main criminal justice organisations, and is a key component of the inter-departmental strategy to deliver a joined-up criminal justice system. The service is under development and is scheduled for implementation in the courts between July 2001 and February 2004.
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    Modernising the Crown Court

66. The Court Service has initiated a programme of work, the 'Crown Court Programme', which will introduce improvements in the Crown Court over the next four years. The proposals cover: a standard system of case management; better support to the judiciary in the courtroom; more streamlined procedures with better IT support for staff; and improved customer service. When the programme is complete, the Crown Court will provide a better service to all involved in the criminal justice system, and do so more efficiently than current systems allow.
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    Modernising the magistrates' courts

67. Magistrates' courts deal with over 95% of the courts' criminal workload. The Department is pursuing a programme of modernising the way courts are operated in delivering justice and meeting need within available resources. The main features are:

    • as of 1 April 1999, the first phase of amalgamations was completed and there are 84 Magistrates' Courts' Committees (MCCs) (down from 96). From 1 April 2000 there were 73 MCCs and from 1 April 2001 there will be 42. By April 2001 there will be full alignment of boundaries between the criminal justice agencies, enabling a more coherent and consistent implementation of policies across an area

    • the Access to Justice Act provides for a Greater London Magistrates' Courts Authority, responsible for the administration of the magistrates' courts in London as a whole. This body will become fully operational from 1 April 2001

    • Clearer separation of the legal and administrative functions within MCCs. The Access to Justice Act provides for administrative functions to be transferred from JCs to JCEs

    • A ten-year programme, started in 1 January 1999, to provide for all new court clerks to be professionally qualified as a barrister or solicitor and for a smooth transition over a period of years for existing court clerks

    • the Access to Justice Act also allows greater flexibility in changing Commission areas and provides for unification of metropolitan and provincial stipendiary benches.

68. The Department supports the local management of the courts through MCCs. It provides local authorities with a grant which meets 80% of the MCCs cash limited expenditure. In 1999/2000 the grant paid was in the region of £263m.

69. The Department is committed to improving magistrates' courts performance and accountability. The main initiatives currently underway are:

    • all MCCs now have annual Public Service Agreements linked to grants and must produce annual reports on performance

    • a review of the grant allocation formula with a view to a new formula being in operation for the financial year 2001/2002, to coincide with the final MCC amalgamations

    • training will be delivered during 2000 to equip the magistrates' courts service for the introduction of the Human Rights Act.

70. In addition to these initiatives, the Lord Chancellor has appointed Lord Justice Auld to conduct a wide ranging review of the structures and operations of the criminal courts as a whole.
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    Inspection of magistrates' courts

71. HM Magistrates' Courts Service Inspectorate (MCSI) carried out nine inspections of MCC areas in 1998/99, bringing to a close the first cycle of inspections covering all the MCCs in England and Wales. It also conducted 26 post-inspection reviews (PIRs) which, combined with PIRs already undertaken, means that almost half the number of MCCs have been revisited since the four-year cycle began. In addition to detailed evidence gathered from these inspections and reviews, it collected a considerable amount of information in the course of other work undertaken during the year. MCSI published a Thematic Review of Relationships between MCCs and Local Authorities and conducted further work on performance measurement by MCCs.

    TABLE 4: Time intervals in magistrates' courts

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72. The June 1999 Time Intervals Survey for magistrates' courts showed a reduction of 3 days in the average time taken in summary motoring cases from first listing to completion since June 1998 (down from 27 to 24 days). Summary non-motoring cases increased from 18 to 20 days; and indictable/either way cases reduced from 53 to 52 days.

    Criminal Defence Service

73. Under the Access to Justice Act, criminal legal aid will be replaced from October 2000 by the Criminal Defence Service (CDS), to be administered by the Legal Services Commission (see paragraph 92 below). The CDS will move to funding criminal defence services through a flexible system of contracts with private sector lawyers and salaried defenders, with the aim of achieving quality assured services and value for money. Suspects and defendants will continue to have a choice of representatives.

74. The Act enables the CDS to contract with solicitors' firms to provide the full range of defence services, from advice at the police station to representation at court. Contracts for criminal defence services will be developed and implemented gradually in a rolling programme from October 2000, with the aim of ensuring that all criminal defence services provided by solicitors are under contracts by 2003. The Legal Services Commission will then develop contracting for specialist advocacy in Crown Court cases. All contracts will include quality requirements and, wherever possible, prices for contracts will be fixed in advance to reward efficient practice and create an incentive to avoid delay.

75. The CDS will also be able to employ lawyers directly to offer criminal defence services to the public. This will enable gaps in private sector provision to be filled, and costs to be compared. Pilot schemes will be run in England and Wales, and account will be taken of experience of the use of salaried defenders in Scotland, before salaried defenders are introduced on a national basis. A consultation paper setting out proposals for salaried defenders is expected to be published in Spring 2000, with the aim of employing the first salaried defenders in 2001.

76. Recovery of Defence Costs Orders will be introduced in October 2000 to replace the current system of magistrates' courts carrying out universal means testing for criminal legal aid which has proved to be barely cost-effective and can cause delay. Under the new arrangements, judges in the Crown Court will be able to order non-acquitted defendants to pay some or all of the costs of their representation, ensuring that defendants who can afford to pay relieve the taxpayer of the costs of their defence.

    Human Rights Act implementation

77. The main provisions of the Human Rights Act will come into force on 2 October 2000. The Department is co-ordinating preparations for implementation within LCD and its sister bodies. It is also working to make sure that law and procedures for which it has responsibility are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. All full and part-time members of the judiciary and the lay magistrates and their legal advisers will receive training on the Act and on the Convention. Where judicial acts are found to be in breach of Article 5, compensation will be paid by the Lord Chancellor and the offending practices or procedures will be rectified within the minimum time possible. Plans are also being developed to monitor and evaluate how the Act is applied after implementation.

    Objective 5

    >To support family relationships and enable disputes relating to their breakdown to be resolved with the least damage and stress to those concerned, and contribute to the Government's objective of helping to build strong families.

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    Marriage and the family

78. Part II of the Family Law Act includes a requirement that married people considering divorce attend information meetings designed to save saveable marriages and, where this is not possible, promote mediation in divorce as an alternative to adversarial litigation. The Lord Chancellor announced in June 1999 that the Government did not intend to implement Part II in 2000. The Government is committed to supporting families and reducing conflict in divorce, but before implementing Part II it must be satisfied that these arrangements will work. In this respect, the interim results of extensive pilots testing information meetings have been disappointing, particularly with regard to the numbers of people being encouraged to attempt mediation. The final results of research from the pilots will not be available until Summer 2000. The Government will then consider how to proceed.

79. The second Annual Report of the Advisory Board on Family Law was published in May 1999. It outlines the progress which has been made in implementing the Family Law Act and sets out the Board's plans for the coming year.

80. The Children Act Sub-Committee of the Advisory Board on Family Law issued a consultation paper on the problem of domestic violence and child contact disputes in June 1999. The consultation period closed in December 1999, and the Government looks forward to receiving the Sub-Committee's advice. The issue of child contact and domestic violence is also being considered by an official working group, chaired by the Department and including representatives of the Home Office, the Cabinet Office Women's Unit, the Department of Health and the Department of Social Security (DSS). The working group, which reports to the Ministerial Committee on Women's Issues (HS(W)), organised a seminar in December 1999 at which researchers were asked to consider what gaps there are in existing research into the issue of child contact and domestic violence, and what further research might be helpful.

81. The Department will eliminate the backlog of applications for the reciprocal enforcement of maintenance orders in foreign countries and issue performance targets for the Department's work in this area.

82. Following the evaluation of the pilot scheme and public consultation, the Government announced that revised ancillary relief procedures would be introduced in England and Wales on 5 June 2000. These are designed to promote early settlement between the parties, eliminate unnecessary delay, and keep costs down. The new system is based on tight timetables and active case management. It includes:

    • judicial involvement in the early stages of a case, to promote earlier, fairer settlements

    • an opportunity to settle the case at a court-led dispute resolution conference instead of a full hearing

    • a requirement to submit statements of the costs incurred at each stage, so that both parties are fully aware of the escalating cost of bringing the case to a conclusion.

83. Following the passing of the Welfare Reform and Pensions Act, the Department will work with the DSS towards the implementation of pension sharing following divorce according to the timetable which is set by the DSS. Implementation is currently expected in December 2000.
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    Disputes relating to children

84. The Government is concerned by the delays in processing Children Act cases through the courts. These delays affect both public law cases (such as care proceedings) and private law cases (such as disputes between parents over child contact and residence). Dame Margaret Booth DBE, a former judge of the High Court Family Division, reported on this subject and made recommendations in 1996, but it is not clear how effectively these recommendations have been implemented. The Department will therefore establish a small review team to examine this issue and report to Ministers. It is intended that the initial report should be completed by the end of 2000.

85. The Department is also looking at the issue of delay in adoption cases, along with colleagues in the Department of Health. The Department has asked the President of the Family Division's Adoption Committee, which includes representatives of the judiciary, practitioners, the voluntary organisation British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering and officials, to consider what improvements might be made to the way in which adoption cases are handled.

86. The Department is also including provisions in the new Child Support Bill in order to modernise the arrangements for obtaining declarations of parentage and for paternity testing in cases where the courts order this to be carried out. The Department will implement existing legislation allowing paternity tests to be conducted on bodily samples other than blood (such as hair and saliva); and will change the arrangements, so that laboratories, rather than individual testers, will be accredited by the Lord Chancellor. As well as the primary legislation, the regulations governing paternity testing will be revised.

87. The Department works closely with the Child Abduction Unit of the Official Solicitor and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in order to deal with the problem of international child abduction. The Hague Convention on Child Abduction will be reviewed by a Hague Conference in 2001, and the Department will contribute fully to this.

88. The Government published Sir Graham Hart's report on marriage and relationship funding on 25 November 1999 and announced plans to implement the recommendations in the report. As a result, a new Advisory Group on Marriage and Relationship Support will be established to advise the Lord Chancellor on policy. The funding by the Department of marriage and relationship support organisations will also be increased, to £4 million in 2000-01, £4.5 million in 2001-02 and to £5 million in 2002-03.
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    CAFCASS

89. In July 1999 Ministers announced plans to create a new Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (CAFCASS). The new unified Service will bring together the three bodies which at present have responsibility for advising judges and magistrates on issues relating to children in public and private law family cases and in adoption: the Probation Service (through Family Court Welfare Officers); local authorities (through Guardians ad Litem and reporting offices); and the Children's Division of the Official Solicitor.

90. Bringing together the three services into one unified Service will provide an opportunity to improve the quality and consistency of service to children, families and the courts and to provide services in a more cost-effective way. The new Service will require primary legislation and will be considered by Parliament as part of the Crime and Public Protection Bill.
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    Mental incapacity

91. The Government published a policy statement, Making Decisions, in October 1999 outlining its proposals for decision-making on behalf of mentally incapacitated adults, in the light of the responses to the consultation paper, Who Decides?, issued in December 1997. The changes will require legislation, which will be introduced when Parliamentary time allows.

    Objective 6

    >To ensure the availability of cost-effective, quality-assured legal services to those who need them, within the resources available, and develop a Community Legal Service, contributing to the Government's aim of combating social exclusion.

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    The Legal Services Commission

92. Part I of the Access to Justice Act 1999 sets the framework for a new system of publicly funded legal services to replace the current legal aid scheme. The Act creates a new non-departmental public body, the Legal Services Commission, which replaced the Legal Aid Board on 1 April 2000. Information on the Legal Aid Board's key aims, objectives, targets and performance is contained in the Board's Annual Report (see Chapter 3). Under the Act, the Commission must establish, develop and maintain two new schemes - the Community Legal Service and the Criminal Defence Service. The new arrangements are intended to bring about a significant increase in access to justice, and to obtain the best value for taxpayers' money spent on legal services.
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    Criminal Defence Service

93. The Criminal Defence Service, which will replace criminal legal aid from October 2000, is described above (see paragraphs 73 to 76).
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    Community Legal Service

94. The development of the Community Legal Service (CLS) is a Government Manifesto commitment. It recognises that many people suffer because they require better access to good quality legal advice to help them resolve potential or actual disputes and enforce their rights effectively. The CLS will ensure that the provision of advice and information is more effective, more consistent, to a more reliable standard of quality, and available to a larger number of those in need. Public funding will be better targeted towards meeting local needs and priorities, so that for the first time people have access to advice they really need, particularly in the areas that bear most on their daily lives, such as debt problems, housing, or eligibility for benefits.

95. The CLS will improve access to quality assured legal services by providing the framework to co-ordinate the funding and supply of publicly funded legal services. The Department has been taking forward the work in this area, following the consultation paper published in May 1999, in readiness for the official launch of the CLS on 3 April 2000. This marked the replacement of the existing civil and family legal aid system with the Community Legal Service Fund and the implementation of the three separate, but interrelated, strands of the CLS:

    • Community Legal Service Partnerships, which will bring together funders and providers to help plan and deliver local legal services, based on local needs and priorities

    • a Quality Mark, which is awarded to providers of legal services who achieve the required quality standards for the CLS, and

    • an Internet website, 'Just Ask', which, in the first instance, will link to existing on-line legal information and include the Directory of legal service suppliers.

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    Community Legal Service Fund

96. As part of the CLS, the current civil and family legal aid system was replaced by a Community Legal Service Fund from 1 April 2000. The aim of the CLS Fund is to improve access to and value for money for legal services funded by central government. This will be achieved by targeting funding on national and local priorities and by contracting for the provision of services with quality assured suppliers, including not-for-profit providers such as law centres and advice agencies, as well as private-sector lawyers.

97. National priorities for funding cases have been set by the Lord Chancellor by direction, and are reflected in a flexible Funding Code, which replaced the previous merits test for civil legal aid. These arrangements will ensure that public money is spent only on cases which cannot be funded in other ways. Local priorities for civil advice and assistance are assessed by Regional Legal Services Committees (RLSCs). The RLSCs are responsible for ensuring that the Community Legal Service Partnerships are aware of the regional perspective when making recommendations about local funding and priorities.

98. Contracts are being let on the basis of local and national priorities, to ensure that publicly funded legal services are targeted on the most deserving cases. Contracts for multi-party actions, all civil and family advice and assistance, and for representation in immigration, mental health and family matters, are already being let. Contracting will be extended to other areas of civil work in 2001.

99. Section 5(2)(a) of the Access to Justice Act 1999 requires the Lord Chancellor to determine appropriate sums to pay into the Community Legal Service Fund. He has determined that the sum for 2000-01 should be £748 million, and provisionally decided that the sum for the following year should be £624 million (see Table 12).

100. For the first 2-3 years of the new scheme, a substantial but diminishing proportion of the Fund will be spent on cases started under the Legal Aid Act 1988. These will remain subject to the provisions of that Act and the regulations made under it. The figures set out above are based in large part on estimates of the likely cost of those pre-existing cases.

101. The scope of the new Fund is narrower than that of legal aid. It excludes personal injury cases that can be funded by conditional fees, as well as several low priority categories, such as business cases. The Funding Code contains criteria for granting help that seek to target priority categories, and are therefore more stringent in many cases than those that applied under legal aid. This is the principal reason why the budget for 2001-02 is considerably lower than the figure for 2000-01. The difference is particularly marked in that year because of the way that cases pass through the system. Most cases last for 2 or 3 years. Payments on account are made after a case has been running for one year. So the lower number of cases started under the new rules in 2000-01 will lead to lower spending on payments on account from 2001-02. At the same time, many cases started under legal aid will be coming to an end and recovering costs from the other side; these costs are income to the Fund, offsetting payments on account made in earlier years.
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     Community Legal Service Partnerships

102. The CLS will create the framework for local networks of legal services through partnerships of the public, private and voluntary sectors. The networks will include private practice solicitors, citizens' advice bureaux, law centres, local council services and independent community advice centres.

103. The networks will be developed by Community Legal Service Partnerships (CLSPs), which will bring together the two principal public funders of legal services: local authorities and the Legal Services Commission, together with other funders and service providers, and will provide the framework for local networks of quality assured legal and advice services awarded the Quality Mark. The CLSP will co-ordinate the funding and provision of services in its area by producing a strategic plan based on an assessment of local needs, a review of existing services, and the priorities of the different funders. The strategic plan for each area will then inform funders' decisions on funding of local legal help. The CLSP will also develop active referral systems amongst the individual providers so a person seeking information or help will receive the right type of advice.

104. The aim is that eventually every local authority area in England and Wales will be covered by CLSPs. There are already 50 local authority areas with CLSPs, who were either Pioneer or Associate Pioneer partnerships, and which account for 25% of the population of England and Wales. The Department's target is to have at least 33% of the population covered by CLSPs by Autumn 2000, 66% by Spring 2001, and 90% by March 2002.

105. The Pioneer and Associate Pioneer partnerships helped the Department and the Legal Aid Board to identify and develop best practice for CLSPs. The Pioneering exercise lasted 12 months and was completed at the end of 1999. The Department and the Legal Aid Board has used the experience of the pioneering exercise to prepare Best Practice Guidance which will be published in draft form for consultation in April 2000. The Guidance will be informed by the research on the Pioneers conducted by the senior research fellow, Richard Moorhead, whose report was published by the Department on 6 March 2000.

106. Performance indicators for CLSPs have also been developed and they were published for consultation in March 2000. Responses have been sought by the end of April so that the indicators will be ready by July 2000, in line with the PSA target for 1999/2000.

     Quality mark

107. The development of a Quality Mark will act as an assurance of quality to the public and become the common denominator for legal services in the local networks. In February 1999, on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, the Department set up a Quality Task Force to develop quality standards for the CLS Quality Mark. The Task Force, which included various interests in the field of legal information and advice, has met during the year to discuss guiding principles and progress, and to review and agree the work of a smaller working group. This working group, led by the Legal Aid Board, has been charged with taking forward much of the detailed planning and practical development of proposals.

108. The Legal Aid Board issued a consultation paper at the start of September, setting out detailed proposals for the Quality Mark. The consultation exercise resulted in a strong endorsement of the proposals, including the main recommendation that services provided under the CLS should be defined as Information; General Help; and Specialist Help, with detailed underlying quality standards for each category.

109. These proposals, which represent the first stage in a process of continuous improvement, are intended primarily for the more conventional areas of service delivery - the face to face contact between provider and customer. Further work will be undertaken to develop suitably tailored standards for service provision where the customer is not in direct contact with the provider, such as second tier services, barristers, and telephone and electronic advice.

110. The Lord Chancellor approved the first set of proposals, which were published in March 2000, and has asked the Task Force to continue with its work so that all areas of CLS service provision are quality assured. In the meantime, the Department is working closely with the Legal Aid Board in its plans for the operational implementation of the proposals. This includes taking a leading and innovative role in setting up CLS Information Points, which for many, will be the first point of entry to the Community Legal Service.

111. The Department is also developing a CLS Directory of legal service providers which will be available in hard and electronic form in April 2000. It will provide information to the public about the services available and facilitate referrals between providers in the local networks.
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     CLS website

112. The third part of the CLS initiative is the development of an Internet website, entitled 'Just Ask', which will complement and assist the work of the local networks. In 1999, the Department worked on the design and development of the website. It has consulted widely in the legal information and advice field, where it is recognised that the Internet is rapidly developing as a prime medium for seeking and disseminating information. This has allowed the Department to determine what is feasible, and to identify that the best way forward is to deliver the website in phases, so it can take account of the evolution of the Internet.

113. The first phase of the website will enable users to locate the most appropriate providers of legal information and help in their area using the CLS Directory, and will connect users to websites with legal information and advice most relevant to their enquiry. The site is also being designed with the aim of being accessible to all, and, to this end, the Department has consulted various organisations such as the RNIB. In addition, the Department has been considering issues of language and literacy and access for those with limited IT skills.

114. If the site is to prove effective, especially for the socially excluded, the issue of access is of major importance. The Department will be taking advantage of initiatives such as 'The People's Network' which will give public Internet access to every library by 2002, and other Government initiatives such as the provision of free computers to low income families with children. Public access terminals and digital TV will also help.

115. The first phase of the site will see the delivery of a platform that will allow for a host of further novel and exciting developments. Work is in hand and will continue after the launch of the first phase of the site on development initiatives, which include interactive services and other technological developments. All sites linked to the CLS website have been assessed to ensure they comply with certain minimum criteria (updating, usefulness of information etc.). Work is to be undertaken this year to develop quality standards for the sites, along the lines of the CLS Quality Mark.
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     Publicity initiatives

116. The Department will also be raising awareness of the CLS amongst the public, and the various funders and providers of legal services. A key element is the introduction of a logo through which the public can recognise the services in the local Community Legal Service networks. The logo was produced by professional designers and was launched in April. The Department has also recruited Champions to promote the Community Legal Service. The Champions are prominent people from the media, local government, business, the legal profession, the advice sector, consumer interests and politics. In addition, with the Legal Aid Board and the Local Government Association, there has been a series of regional conference to promote the role of local government, and the Department has produced two newsletters to further raise the profile of the CLS.
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     Conditional fee and litigation funding agreements

     >Conditional fees and legal costs insurance premiums

117. The Access to Justice Act 1999 reformed the law relating to conditional fee agreements and the treatment for costs purposes of success fees payable to the winner's lawyers, and of insurance premiums to cover the costs liability of a particular case. The new regime will allow the court to order the losing party to pay all or part of the success fee and such a premium. It will also allow the funders of membership schemes that provide legal services, such as those operated by trades unions, and which self insure against the risk in costs, to recover a sum in relation to the cost to the scheme of that self insurance. The scheme, which came into force on 1 April 2000, protects the winning party's compensation from erosion by having to pay some or all of the success fee or premium. It makes conditional fees and after the event legal expenses insurance more attractive to defendants and those seeking non-monetary redress, while further discouraging weak cases and encouraging settlements.

118. The Department will be monitoring and evaluating how the new scheme operates.

119. In addition, there are major changes afoot in the way that private litigation is funded and provided, such as the entry to the market of a range of 'after the event' insurance and funding products. The Department recognises that this is likely to present the professions, insurers and others with new opportunities and challenges. It is in close contact with all those concerned and determined to ensure that, in this fast developing sector, the market is properly regulated so that the professions and others expand their businesses through providing citizens and commercial and other clients with good quality, accessible and competitively priced services.
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     Legal services

120. The Access to Justice Act 1999 received Royal Assent on 27 July 1999 and a number of provisions came into force on 27th September. From that date:

     • all barristers and solicitors acquired full rights of audience on call to the Bar or admission to the Roll (exercisable in accordance with the requirements of the Bar Council and the Law Society)

     • the Bar Council and Institute of Legal Executives became authorised bodies for the granting of rights to conduct litigation

     • the powers of the Law Society were extended in relation to the practice, conduct and discipline of solicitors and clerks

     • the powers of the Legal Services Ombudsman were extended, and

     • a statutory duty was placed on litigators and advocates to act with independence in the interests of justice.

121. From 1st January 2000 the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct (ACLEC) was replaced by the Legal Services Consultative Panel. The Panel's general duty is to provide the Lord Chancellor with any advice he requires about legal services, legal education and related matters. The Lord Chancellor will also have the power to call in and amend rules of the professional bodies.

122. Further provisions will come into force shortly:

     • providing employed advocates, including Crown Prosecutors, with the same rights of audience enjoyed by lawyers in private practice

     • enabling barristers employed by firms of solicitors to provide legal services directly to the public, and

     • establishing the 'portability' of rights of audience for authorised advocates on a change of employed status (e.g. from barrister to solicitor).

123. In addition the Act gave the Lord Chancellor the power to appoint a Legal Services Complaints Commissioner to oversee complaints handling by the professional bodies. Implementation of this provision will be subject to their performance over the next 9 months.

124. The Lord Chancellor also established a committee to investigate the work of non-legally qualified 'claims assessors' who make claims on behalf of people who have suffered personal injury or who have employment claims. Ministers will be taking forward its recommendations as appropriate in the coming months.

1 The Department's objectives are listed in this order for reasons of consistency or continuity. They do not necessarily reflect the Government's order of priority for each area at a particular time.

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