Housing Legal Aid: the way forward
Applies to England and Wales
Read the full outcome
Detail of outcome
Having considered the consultation responses, the government has decided to implement the policies consulted on with some minor amendments. It will also take forward two further measures, in light of feedback received during the consultation. Therefore, the policy changes that the MoJ will take forward to implementation will be the following:
- Remodelling the delivery of the HPCDS to become a new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), incorporating both the existing service of advice and representation at court but also early legal advice before court.
- Expanding the scope of legal aid so that HLPAS providers can offer early legal advice on social welfare law matters to individuals who have received a notice seeking possession of their home. This will be paid at the £157 fixed fee for Legal Help, but with an escape threshold set at three times the fixed fee.
- Contracting a panel of legal experts to assist and upskill providers where they lack expertise on social welfare case matters.
- Piloting the grant funding of a set number of legal aid training contracts for HLPAS providers.
- Contracting by courts, rather than larger geographical areas, with one HLPAS contract awarded for each court. The exception to this will be where two courts have been historically bundled together to ensure high enough volumes of work.
- Allowing providers to claim for the court duty fee in addition to a Legal Help fee for follow on work.
- Introducing a set attendance fee for all schemes, replacing the existing nil session payment.
These changes represent an ambitious new model for delivering these services. Our aim is to ensure that clients can access high-quality support as early in the process as possible, while ensuring the service is financially viable for providers to deliver. Following the publication of this consultation, the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) will draft new contracts incorporating the policy position laid out in this response. The LAA will subsequently run a procurement process for these new contracts over Summer/Autumn 2022, with the contracts set to begin in April 2023.
Original consultation
Consultation description
The government is consulting on a proposed new model for the delivery of housing possession legal aid. This aims to ensure the sustainability of the service and to improve the breadth and quality of advice available for individuals facing the loss of their home.
The key proposals in this consultation are:
- remodel the delivery of the HPCDS to become a new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), incorporating both the existing service of advice and representation at court but also early legal advice before court
- expanding the scope of legal aid so that HLPAS providers can offer early legal advice on social welfare law matters to individuals facing procession proceedings
- contracts for individual courts rather than larger geographical areas
- allowing providers to claim for the court duty fee in addition to a Legal Help fee for follow on work
- introducing a set attendance fee for all schemes, replacing the existing nil session payment
Documents
Updates to this page
Published 25 November 2021Last updated 31 May 2022 + show all updates
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Consultation response published.
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Welsh version of consultation published.
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First published.