33.The present scheme is contained in the Legal Aid Act 1988.
34.A common feature of existing civil and criminal legal aid schemes is that expenditure on them is demand-led. Any lawyer can do legal aid work for a client who passes the relevant means test (if any), and whose case passes the statutory merits test (in the case of civil legal aid), or the interests of justice test (in the case of criminal legal aid). Lawyers are paid on a case-by-case basis, usually at rates or fees set in regulations, but in some cases on the same basis as a privately-funded lawyer.
35.This means that there are few mechanisms or incentives for promoting value for money or assuring the quality of the services provided; and that neither the Government nor the Legal Aid Board is able to exert adequate control over expenditure or determine the priorities for that expenditure.
36.Over the last 6 years, total net expenditure on legal aid has increased by £529 million, from £1,093 million in 1992/93 to £1,622 million in 1998/99, a rise of 48%. This compares with general inflation of 16% over the same 6 years. Meanwhile, the total number of people helped by legal aid increased by 7% to 3.5 million. Over the same period, spending on civil and family legal aid rose from £463 million to £659 million, an increase of 42%, while the number of people helped fell by almost 30%. The average gross cost of civil or family cases rose by 86%, from £1,739 in 1992/93 to £3,239 in 1998/99. Spending on criminal legal aid rose by 50% from £418 million to £625 million, while the numbers helped increased by 11%. The average cost of a criminal case went up by 8% in the magistrates' courts and 53% in the Crown Court.
A.FUNDING OF LEGAL SERVICES (Parts I & II, sections 1-34) Background Legal Aid