Good afternoon. It's a pleasure to be at your conference today and I would like to thank Steve Hynes for inviting me to speak here.
The theme of this conference is 'Law is Local'. I enjoy getting out of Westminster to see what is happening on the ground. Only this morning I attended Coventry Law Centre's AGM, last month I went to the opening of Kirklees Law Centre. And I often send my own constituents to the local Law Centre in Lewisham. I am repeatedly impressed by the service they receive and am very aware of the important role all Law Centres play in ensuring that local communities have access to local advice services. I value the local role of the Law Centre.
This conference undoubtedly marks the culmination of a lot of hard work by all those involved in the coordination, development and delivery of the high quality advice services provided by Law Centres.
The immense importance and value of the work carried out by a vast range of advice providers has, for me, been quite inspiring, especially when considering the numbers of people helped by such agencies and the differences that you make to everyday people's lives. It is truly one of the aspects of this job that makes me want to pursue the agenda.
Thank you for your dedication and commitment to making the Law Centres a success.
The LCF has worked hard over the years to secure funding for Law Centre's from a vast array of sources. Today funding comes from a range of government agencies, local authorities and individual donors. Without LCF's ability to build and maintain these strong funding relationships the valuable work of Law Centres would diminish.
However, it takes much more than funding to deliver quality publicly funded legal advice. The commitment of Law Centre staff that I have met to helping fight social exclusion has been truly admirable.
It is important to remember the local impact of the law and the legal system on the vulnerable in society - I see this every day among my own constituents. Law Centres play a valuable role in helping people access their legal rights on a local level - whether that's defending eviction proceedings, sorting out a benefits claim, helping someone who has been unfairly dismissed, or any of the other myriad of problems clients bring to your doors - Law Centres are a key part of the local legal system.
I know that Law Centres often provide outreach services which help to raise awareness amongst local communities of the types of advice available. I saw that in Kirklees how a relatively new Law Centre has established itself as a recognised source of legal advice for local communities. The Law Centre works closely with community organisations, particularly by taking their services out to community venues, such as refugee support groups, in promoting its services and identifying clients.
To illustrate the benefits of this I'd like to refer to a case I heard about whilst visiting Kirklees Law Centre last month. A young woman was attempting to apply for benefits to which she was entitled. However, her disability prevented her from complying with procedures applied to claims that were strictly applied by the Department for Work and Pensions.
As a result she was not awarded benefit for six months. Understandably concerned and worried about the decision made by the Department for Work and Pensions the client visited a local Citizens Advice Bureau to seek advice on the matter. Advisers at the CAB suspected that the criteria and procedures applied to claims were in some way discriminatory.
They referred the case to the Law Centre who took it on and worked with disability rights experts to resolve the matter. The outcome was that, as well as being awarded benefits, the Law Centre obtained compensation for the client. To take this further and prevent similar cases arising the Law Centre is currently working in partnership with the Disability Rights Commission to achieve changes to discriminatory procedures which will hopefully result in wider benefit for all people in that position.
Two weeks ago, Lord Falconer and I published "The Future of Legal Services: Putting Consumers First" White Paper to reform the regulation and delivery of legal service; promoting competition and innovation while ensuring the consumer is properly protected.
Our proposals, which have been informed by stakeholders including importantly a Consumer Advisory Panel consisting of NCC, Which?, Citizens Advice, Equal Opportunities Commission and the Federation of Small Business, which will create a new Legal Services Board that will provide strong and independent oversight.
At present additional activities cannot be brought under statutory control without primary legislation. This involves a delay which can mean that consumers remain unprotected for months or even years.
We intend to put an end to that. The legislation will provide the Secretary of State with the power to bring additional activities under the statutory control of the Legal Services Board.
A particular area where we need to build consumer confidence is in the handling of complaints. Consumers have told us loud and clear that they do not have confidence in system under which complaints about lawyers are handled by their professional bodies.
The handling of complaints also takes too long, focusing on technicalities rather than on providing quick and fair redress to the consumer, whatever the circumstances of their case.
Under our proposals, all complaints about the services provided by legal professionals will be handled by a new and fully independent Office for Legal Complaints.
These new arrangements will be much easier for consumers to understand and to use, will be demonstrably independent, and will ensure a greater consistency of approach in the handling of complaints. And above all they will ensure the consumer receives quick and fair redress.
But our proposals do not end with high quality regulation. What consumers want above all is high standards of service and good value for money. That means encouraging effective competition. People don't want to have to juggle between firms, chambers, advice centres - getting piecemeal help from each. Whether it's housing, insurance, or representation in court, consumers want a seamless service from their providers.
We intend to make this an easier prospect through the opportunity of Alternative Business Structures. Our proposals will enable different types of lawyers and non-lawyers to work together on an equal footing. This will enable firms to recruit and retain people with new skills and real talent.
External investment will also be permitted. And this will enable access to low cost capital allowing firms to expand, and to take advantages of the latest technology helping them to compete more effectively amongst themselves, but also with the best firms internationally.
These new business structures will give legal professions greater flexibility and consumers targeted protections.
It will be the responsibility of the Legal Services Board to ensure that safeguards are in place to protect the consumer, for example to deal with potential conflicts of interest. The LSB will also grant an additional authorisation to Front Line Regulators who want to act as Alternative Business Structure regulators.
With proper safeguards new business structures consumers will have access to a wider range of providers - and a better choice of services.
This I hope will see a legal sector that continues to flourish.
But above all, I want to see a sector that genuinely values its consumers, whoever they may be, and delivers on their needs.
I want to say a few words about legal aid.
Legal aid really matters: it helps create the kind of society we all want to live in. A society that's fair and decent and safe.
Since legal aid was set up in 1949, millions of people have benefited from it. Millions of people have benefited from free advice, help, support and representation. Now I want us to set a Legal Services agenda that's fit for the 21st Century.
But as many of you know, the legal aid budget is under enormous pressure. Every year, criminal expenditure continues to climb, which limits the amount of money available to fund civil legal advice.
That's not a fair deal for the taxpayer. More importantly, it's not a fair deal for vulnerable people who need advice.
So in July this year, the Lord Chancellor announced a radical shake up of legal aid. What the Lord Chancellor is proposing is a package of measures that will change the current legal system and safeguard the future of civil legal aid.
I want to see legal aid as a pillar of the welfare state, in just the same way as education and health.
One of the key things we are trying to do is to reduce the pressure on the legal aid budget arising from high cost criminal cases, through reforms in the way we pay for criminal defence. It simply cannot be right that 1% of criminal cases take up 50% of the crown court budget. If we don't succeed in doing this, our ability to offer quality civil help and advice for those who need it will be put at severe risk.
Another aspect will be to reduce the pressure that legal changes, introduced by other government departments, can have on the legal aid budget.
For too long, legal aid has had to be reactive to legal changes introduced by other parts of government - effectively if one part of government changes the law, we may be compelled to fund advice or representation in this new area, but without any additional funding to meet these requirements.
We have achieved a significant improvement in the policy making process. A legal aid impact test will now be part of the way government develops policy. The test will be added to the Regulatory Impact Assessment. These assessments are completed for every policy change, whether European or domestic, affecting the public or private sector, charities, the voluntary sector or small businesses.
We are starting to use this new process and are confident it will put a check on policies, whether by accident or design, that squeeze the legal aid budget.
What we want is a fair deal for clients and those facing legal problems to ensure that all citizens are able to gain access to justice. This is a huge challenge for all involved in processing the delivery of legal aid.
Quite often, however, the challenge lies with raising awareness of advice services and to encourage people facing legal problems to seek advice early on.
Research from the Legal Services Research Centre tells us that only half of those with a problem seek legal advice, and of those that do, one in seven fail to get it. We need to provide advice in the most relevant way for the people we are trying to help.
This brings me to the development of the Community Legal Service, where Law Centres play an important role. The Legal Services Commission is looking at ways of making expenditure on civil advice more targeted on those who need it most, particularly the socially excluded. Its strategy went for consultation back in July. The proposals are:
These proposals are still at the development stage. The Commission is currently reviewing consultation responses and will be taking your feedback very seriously.
Local advice provision is a vital public service. But advice agencies need to be able to work as part of wider networks to deliver quality services to the community they serve.
The LCF's ability to embrace change and encourage innovation in the way in which services are delivered illustrates a resolute commitment towards ensuring that the most disadvantaged are able to receive access to justice.
I understand that Reita Clark is stepping down as Chair of the LCF. Reita
has been very active during her time as Chair in ensuring that Law Centres
continue to meet the needs of the people and communities that they serve.
Reita has worked hard to secure funding from an array of sources and built
strong links with national advice and representation bodies as well as
with local and central government. Reita's work has helped form the
basis for the future of Law Centres and their role in providing publicly
funded advice services to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in society.
I'm sure everyone will join me in thanking Reita for her hard work
over the last three years as Chair and in wishing her all the very best
for the future - thank you Reita.