Legal aid spending down another £2m, SLAB annual report reveals

Legal aid cost the Scottish taxpayer £135.7m in 2016-17, down £2.1m on the previous year, the annual report of the Scottish Legal Aid Board has revealed.

Published today, the report discloses a fall in civil legal aid spending in the year to 31 March 2017 from £34.16m to £30.72m, civil advice and assistance and ABWOR marginally down at £18.44m, summary criminal legal aid also slightly down from £29.81m to £29.36m, but solemn criminal legal aid up from £36.34m to £37.46m. Children's legal assistance rose 6% from £5.1m to £5.4m. Grant funding by SLAB fell from £7.8m to £6.26m.

Total civil spending, net of operating income which fell by more than £2m, was down from £47.77m to £44.73m, while total criminal assistance rose from £84.35m to £85.06m. Total administration spend fell from £12.22m to £11.75m, largely due to higher than normal pension costs in the previous year.

The figures given are for legal aid cash spend, the basis on which funding is received from the Scottish Government. After accounting adjustments, including depreciation, accruals and prepayments, the statement of comprehensive net expenditure shows a net cost of operations of £129.9m (2015-16: £130.2m). 

The legal aid budget for 2016-17 was £126.1m.

Since 2010-11, annual spending has fallen from a high point of £161.4m.

SLAB chief executive Colin Lancaster commented: “2016-17 has been a year of good performance for the organisation during a continued period of organisational change and a complex external environment.

“We developed a new three year corporate plan, which takes us up to March 2020. As part of this process, our board agreed new strategic objectives for the organisation.

“The plan focuses on operational excellence, with a vision that we will transform the administration of legal aid.

“Although a significant focus of the corporate plan is on our internal operations and culture, everything that we do in pursuance of it will also aim to deliver positive outcomes for those seeking, accessing, and delivering legal aid.”

The Board reports that for its main functions of taking decisions on legal aid applications and assessing and paying the accounts of solicitors and counsel, it met or exceeded all but one of its headline performance indicators for the year.

An independent review of the legal aid system in Scotland, led by Martyn Evans, is due to report in spring 2018.

Click here to view the annual report.