Tag: Lord Beecham

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the changes in the eligibility of legal aid on the number of litigants in person and the consequential impact on the administration of justice.

Lord Faulks

We are closely monitoring the impact of the legal aid changes. The number of family cases showing self representing parties are published in Courts Statistics Quarterly (www.gov.uk/government/collections/court-statistics-quarterly). We are working towards publishing data on self representation in civil cases more widely and will include this in future publications.

Litigants in person are not a new phenomenon in our courts. Judges are used to helping persons with no legal representation, including explaining procedures and what is expected of them. We have taken steps to help people who either want or have to represent themselves in court, including publishing a revised guide for separating parents and increased training for judges. The link to the guide is:

http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/GetLeaflet.do?court_leaflets_id=2756

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-05.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to review the arrangements for providing court interpreters in the light of recent criticism by the President of the Family Division.

Lord Faulks

The arrangements for the provision of interpreters are kept under review.

There has been dramatic improvements in performance in the last two years. The Ministry continues to manage contracts to ensure this improvement is maintained.