MPs reverse amendments on legal aid
Janaki Mahadevan
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
MPs have reversed an amendment made by the House of Lords that called for children to be protected from any changes to legal aid.
Peers voted last month for an amendment that would ensure legal aid continued for children in all the cases currently covered by the service, citing figures that claim that the government’s proposed reforms would affect 6,000 children.
But when the bill returned to the House of Commons this week, MPs overturned all 11 amendments made in the House of Lords.
The government believes the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Offenders Bill will save £350m in legal aid costs by 2015.
Speaking during the debate in parliament on Tuesday (17 April), Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke said: “As I have said, under our plans, the overwhelming majority of the existing support for children will continue. For the record, that includes child protection cases, civil cases concerning the abuse of a child, special educational needs cases, and legal aid for children who are made parties to private family proceedings.
“In addition, we have made funding available in the final set of amendments under consideration in this group for cases of clinical negligence involving claims for babies who suffer brain injury at or around the point of birth.”
But Jenny Chapman, Labour MP for Darlington, among the critics of the bill, voiced concerns at the length of time allocated to debate the amendments.
“This wide-ranging group of amendments demonstrates both the scale of opposition to the bill and the government’s failure throughout to provide sufficient time for deliberations on it,” she said.
“We have just two hours to consider the government’s defeats on domestic violence, welfare benefits advice, children with civil justice problems and clinical negligence.”
The bill will return to the House of Lords next week.