Commentary Provision of legal aid Section 6: Authorisations
84.Section 6 makes provision about the effect of the delegation of functions under section 5.
85.Subsection (1) gives the Lord Chancellor and the Director the power to limit the duration of a delegation as well as to vary or revoke the delegation at any time. It also reserves the right of the Lord Chancellor and the Director (or another person) to continue to exercise a function that has been delegated.
86.Subsections (2) and (3) provide that any act or omission by a person (“authorised person”) in exercising a function of the Lord Chancellor or Director delegated to them under section 5 is to be treated as being done or omitted to be done by the Lord Chancellor or the Director.
87.However the liability of the Lord Chancellor or Director for acts or omissions of an authorised person is not absolute. Subsection (4) provides that subsections (2) and (3) do not affect the rights and liabilities of the Lord Chancellor and the authorised person between themselves (for example, contractual disputes), do not prevent civil proceedings from being brought against the authorised person, do not apply to criminal offences alleged to have been committed by the authorised person and do not make the Lord Chancellor or Director liable under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 for acts of the authorised person which are private in nature.