The Government has been defeated this week in the House of Lords over plans to restrict legal aid. With a narrow margin of 201 to 191, peers backed the motion by Labour peer Lord Bach, who had accused ministers of failing to honour a previous commitment on access to help in welfare cases.
Lord Bach said that the Government had failed to honour a commitment by then Lord Chancellor Ken Clarke to allow support in “point of law” cases at the first-tier tribunal level for claimants appealing against a ruling on their welfare benefits.
The Labour peer said that any undertaking to Parliament must be kept and that he was particularly concerned about the impact on disabled people making their initial appeal against a decision by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) on their benefit entitlement.
Liberal Democrat Peer, Baroness Doocey, who backed the motion, agreed and said that the Government’s proposals to cut legal aid would be catastrophic for many thousands of people.
However, Justice Minister Lord McNally insisted that any further concessions would “affect the fundamental objectives” of plans to cut costs, as the Government wants to save £350m a year on legal aid by 2015.
He added that the Government had never said that it was their intention for all first-tier welfare benefit appeals to receive legal aid and that it had always wanted to target legal aid at cases of the highest priority and where it is most needed.
After the debate, the peers voted on a piece on secondary legislation stemming from the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act, which was passed earlier this year and voted to support Lord Bach’s motion.