Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, Amendment 171A is surely the least controversial of all the many amendments to this Bill that are being debated. It proposes an amendment to Section 194 of the Legal Services Act 2007. Section 194 is a very useful provision. It recognises that members of the Bar and solicitors frequently act pro bono for clients in legal proceedings—they charge no fee. This is of course to their great credit and to the enormous benefit of the legal system as a whole, as well as of their fortunate clients. Some of our debates on this Bill have involved criticism of lawyers, some of it justified. We should take a moment to note that many lawyers act regularly in a wholly creditable manner by providing people with legal assistance when there is no funding, and without that pro bono assistance justice would simply not be done. One inevitable consequence of this Bill will be an increase in the demand for pro bono assistance from lawyers. When the pro bono lawyer succeeds for the claimant or the defendant, the unsuccessful other party cannot be ordered to pay the costs of the proceedings because the successful litigant has no costs, or limited costs, having received pro bono assistance. The losing side would gain an unfair benefit and indeed an unfair advantage in the litigation. Section 194 addresses this situation. It confers power on the court in civil cases to order a person, normally the unsuccessful party, to pay a sum in respect of the notional costs to a charity prescribed by the Lord Chancellor. The charity prescribed is the Access to Justice Foundation, which distributes the funds paid to it to voluntary organisations providing free legal support for individuals and communities. Section 194 of the Legal Services Act 2007 was promoted by the efforts of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Goldsmith, who I am delighted to see in his place. As Her Majesty’s Attorney-General, he promoted this valuable provision. He is now chairman of the Access to Justice Foundation and I pay tribute to his considerable efforts in encouraging and supporting pro bono work done by lawyers. Section 194 has one small defect; it applies to the county courts, the High Court and the Court of Appeal but it does not apply to the Supreme Court. There is no sensible reason for not conferring this valuable power on the Supreme Court to make orders for payments to the prescribed charity in appropriate cases. Indeed, many cases in which lawyers act pro bono are the Supreme Court. Justices of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court users group have expressed the view that Section 194 should apply to the Supreme Court as it does to other courts. I hope that the Minister will be able to tell the Committee tonight that this omission will now be rectified. I beg to move.