Explanatory note

(This Note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations replace, with amendments, the Legal Advice and Assistance Regulations (No. 2) 1980 (S.I. 1980/1898) (as amended) (except their provisions as to the scope of advice and assistance), which are replaced, with amendments, by the Legal Advice and Assistance (Scope) Regulations 1989 (S.I. 1989/ ).

The main changes reflect the transfer of responsibility for administration of legal aid from the Law Society to the Legal Aid Board established by the Legal Aid Act 1988.

Other important changes are–

(a)

to enable the Board to make duty solicitor arrangements replacing those made by the Law Society under the Legal Aid (Duty Solicitor) Scheme 1988 (regulations 6(3) and 7);

(b)

to require the provision of information to enable the solicitor to determine whether advice or assistance relating to the making of a will would fall within the scope of Part III of the Act (regulations 9(5), 10(3));

(c)

to require the Board to be given an opportunity to make representations before any order for costs against the Board is made under section 13 of the Act (regulation 35);

(d)

to set out in the Regulations the financial limits on advice and assistance which can be given without the approval of the Board (regulation 4);

(e)

to set out in the Regulations all the provisions for eligibility for advice and assistance and contributions (regulations 11 to 13 and Schedules 2 and 3);

(f)

to provide for the purposes of eligibility and contributions that the resources of a man and a woman living together as husband and wife are to be treated as if they were married (paragraph 2 of Schedule 2); and

(g)

to provide (subject to the transitional provision in regulation 1(2)) for the assessment of costs by Area Directors, for reviews of such assessments by area committees, and for appeals from such reviews to a committee appointed by the Board (regulation 29).