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The Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1990

S.I. 1990/632 · Made 15 March 1990

Original text. legislation.gov.uk does not revise statutory instruments, so later amendments are not shown here. Changes made to it are listed under each provision when known.

LEGAL AID AND ADVICE, SCOTLAND

Made 15th March 1990

Laid before Parliament 19th March 1990

Coming into force 9th April 1990

The Secretary of State, in exercise of the powers conferred on him by sections 36(1) and 42 of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986f1, and all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:

Annotations to the whole text

Footnotes

f1

1986 c. 47.

Contents

  1. 1Citation and commencement
  2. 2Interpretation
  3. 3Transitional provisions
  4. 4Resources of an applicant who is a child
  5. 5Deprivation or conversion of resources
  6. 6Resources of pensioners
  7. 7Capital payments made in relation to proceedings
  8. Signature
  9. Explanatory note

1Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 1990 and shall come into force on 9th April 1990.

2Interpretation

In these Regulations, “the principal Regulations” means the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1987f1.

3Transitional provisions

These Regulations shall–

(a)

apply to applications for advice and assistance where the determination is made on or after 9th April 1990;

(b)

not apply to applications for advice and assistance where the determination or redetermination is made before 9th April 1990.

4Resources of an applicant who is a child

Paragraph 4 of Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations shall be omitted.

5Deprivation or conversion of resources

In paragraph 5 of Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations, after the words “maximum contribution”, there shall be inserted the words “, whether for the purpose of making himself eligible for advice and assistance, reducing his liability to pay a contribution towards legal aid or otherwise”.

6Resources of pensioners

After paragraph 10 of and Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations there shall be inserted the following new paragraph:–

“11
(1)

Where the person concerned is of pensionable age and his weekly disposable income (excluding any net income derived from capital) is less than the current amended figure thereof as prescribed in section 11(2)(a) of the Legal Aid (Scotland) Act 1986f1, there shall be disregarded the amount of capital as specified in the following table:–

Weekly disposable income (excluding net income derived from capital)Amount of capital disregard
Up to £1025,000
£11 – £2220,000
£23 – £3415,000
£35 – £4610,000
£47 and above 5,000
(2)

In this Schedule “pensionable age” means–

(a)

in the case of a man, the age of 65; and

(b)

in the case of a woman, the age of 60.”.

7Capital payments made in relation to proceedings

After paragraph 11 of Schedule 2 to the principal Regulations (as inserted by regulation 6 above) there shall be inserted the following new paragraph:–

“12

In computing the amount of capital of the person concerned there shall be wholly disregarded any capital payment received from any source which is made in relation to the subject matter of the dispute in respect of which the legal aid application has been made.”.

Signature

James Douglas-Hamilton

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Scottish Office

St Andrew’s House,

Edinburgh

14th March 1990

We concur,

John Taylor

David Lightbown

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

15th March 1990

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Advice and Assistance (Scotland) Regulations 1987 by–

(1)

omitting Schedule 2, paragraph 4 of the 1987 Regulations to enable a child’s resources to be separately assessed and no longer taken to include sums payable for his maintenance (regulation 4);

(2)

amending Schedule 2, paragraph 5 of the 1987 Regulations to allow account to be taken of resources of which an applicant has deprived himself for whatever reason (regulation 5);

(3)

allowing an additional disregard of capital on a sliding scale in respect of persons of pensionable age where their disposable income (excluding investment income) is below the free income limit (regulation 6);

(4)

allowing a disregard in respect of capital payments made in relation to the incident which has led to the litigation (eg disaster fund payments) (regulation 7).