246.This section sets out the way in which the legal assistance scheme is to be funded.  It will be a free-standing scheme rather than an extension of legal aid and will be paid for by levies raised from authorised persons.  The Lord Chancellor will determine the potential or actual cost of the legal assistance scheme.  The Authority will have responsibility for determining the distribution of levies across the regulated community, collecting them and paying them over to the Lord Chancellor’s Department.
247.The money raised will be paid into the Consolidated Fund. Spending on the legal assistance scheme will be voted expenditure.  The costs of administering the scheme will come out of the running costs of the Tribunal.
248.If the amount paid to the Lord Chancellor in any one year exceeds the cost of the legal assistance scheme (for example because the costs in that period prove to be lower than anticipated), he must decide either to repay the excess to the Authority or else take into account this amount in the next determination of costs, by reducing the amount which the Authority has to levy during the following year.  If the excess amount is repaid to the Authority, the Authority has discretion whether to distribute the money amongst those persons upon whom the levy was imposed (or some of them) to offset it against future invoices, or else partly to distribute the amount and partly offset it.  This enables the Authority to avoid costly redistribution of small amounts.  If the Authority considers that it is not practicable to deal with an excess in any of these ways, it may obtain the permission of the Lord Chancellor to use it in some other appropriate manner.
Commentary on Sections Part Ix: Hearings and Appeals Section 136: Funding of the legal assistance scheme