Part 5: Modern Slavery Section 67: Civil legal services under section 10 of LASPO: add-on services in relation to national referral mechanism
Overview: This section amends the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ("LASPO 2012") to enable advice on referral into the national referral mechanism (NRM) to be provided as "add-on" advice where individuals have received an exceptional case determination under section 10 of LASPO 2012.
	Background: Section 10 of LASPO 2012 makes civil legal services that are not described in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to LASPO available in exceptional cases. The determination by the Director of Legal Aid Casework that an applicant can get these services is called an "exceptional case determination", and to get such a determination the Director must determine that the circumstances in subsection 10(3) apply, which is that a failure to provide funding could give rise to a breach of the individual’s ECHR or other retained enforceable EU rights. The Director must also determine that the individual qualifies for the services in accordance with the statutory means and merits tests which are set out in section 11 LASPO 2012 and in Regulations made under LASPO 2012.
	The aim of this section is to identify and support individuals who may be potential victims of modern slavery or human trafficking by ensuring they receive advice on referral into the NRM to understand what it does and how it could help them.
	This section inserts new subsections 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D and 3E into section 10 of LASPO 2012 providing that civil legal services relating to advice on referral into the NRM are also available to an individual who has an exceptional case determination. The exceptional case determination must have been made in relation to a claim under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 that removing the individual from, or requiring the individual to leave, the UK, would be unlawful.