Chamber and committees

Table 1 gives details of the numbers of cases of suspected fraud or abuse by applicants investigated by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) in each of the last five financial years.

Table 1: Applicant Investigations

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Number of cases investigated	923	692	1,052	1,073	656
Disposals:
Terminated	194	101	168	224	64
Warning letter/Reassessment	363	253	342	309	153
Legal aid refused	70	48	49	33	27
Application abandoned	42	39	32	47	27
No further action	136	129	228	248	223
Allegation not founded	93	89	184	154	105
Reported to the Crown Office (Court-granted Solemn)1	0	0	0	2	0
Advice and Assistance cases2	25	33	49	56	57

Notes:

1. SLAB does not have regulatory power to terminate the award, or to recover the funding already provided, where legal aid has been granted by the court in respect of a solemn criminal offence. SLAB can ask the sheriff to reconsider whether he would have granted, given the full financial circumstances subsequently known. Criminal prosecution is then required to recover the money. In two cases in 2007-08 sheriffs considered that they would not have granted legal aid had they known the full financial circumstances. Other cases where the sheriff considered that legal aid should still have been granted are included under no further action.

2. These are cases where recovery of legal aid costs is sought from the applicant because he or she has refused to cooperate with SLAB or has provided false information.

Table 2 gives details of the numbers of cases of suspected fraud or abuse by solicitors investigated by the Scottish Legal Aid Board in each of the last five financial years, along with the number of reports made to the Law Society and Crown Office. Several investigations by the board have run over a number of years, and once a case is reported to the Law Society or Crown Office additional work by the board may be required for a considerable time. The number of cases being actively pursued at any point in time by the board and/or by one of the external agencies is, therefore, higher than shown in the following table.

Table 2: Solicitor Investigations

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Number of cases investigated	80	152	178	152	150
Disposals:
Repayments	18	62	127	115	128
Reported to the Law Society	5	1	2	1	0
Reported to the Crown Office	4	0	3	1	0
Criminal firms de-registered	0	1	2	0	0

 

Full details of the intimations of advice and assistance and assistance by way of representation in each of the last five financial years are contained in the statistical tables in the annual reports published by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. These can be found in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. numbers 33909, 38496, 41341, 43712 and 47128).

The following table gives the number of increases in expenditure granted by the board in relation to advice and assistance and assistance by way of representation on civil matters in 2008-09, broken down by range of amount. Because of changes to the board''s computer systems a comparable breakdown of amounts for 2004-05 to 2007-08 is not readily available.

Increase size range (£)	2008-09
<= 100	3,279
101 - 200	7,753
201 - 300	6,722
301 - 400	7,864
401 - 500	15,431
501 - 750	12,134
751 - 1000	5,170
1,001 “ 1,250	3,292
1,251 “ 1,500	2,818
1,501 “ 1,750	2,950
1,751 “ 2,000	1,086
2,001+	2,092
Total	70,591

 

The following tables give the numbers of solicitors'' firms which have submitted intimations of advice and assistance and applications for civil legal aid in each of the last five financial years, broken down by parliamentary region. The Scottish Legal Aid Board does not have geographic information for all branches of all solicitors'' firms. As a result, there may be a slight discrepancy between the national figure and the sum of regional totals in any given year.

Intimations of Advice and Assistance

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Central Scotland	133	114	115	109	98
Glasgow	248	229	229	204	192
Highland and Islands	80	67	57	54	47
Lothians	116	106	91	81	78
Mid Scotland and Fife	126	120	109	102	91
North East Scotland	127	116	107	106	97
South of Scotland	122	111	100	89	90
West of Scotland	106	97	95	88	84
Scotland	1,059	961	903	834	779

Civil Legal Aid Applications

	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Central Scotland	98	96	89	90	84
Glasgow	167	171	166	172	163
Highland and Islands	55	51	48	44	42
Lothians	82	82	73	67	67
Mid Scotland and Fife	97	99	93	87	86
North East Scotland	94	96	88	88	86
South of Scotland	87	90	80	73	76
West of Scotland	83	83	82	75	68
Scotland	765	769	719	697	672

 

Full details of the applications for and grants of civil legal aid in each of the last five financial years are contained in the statistical tables in the annual reports published by the Scottish Legal Aid Board. These can be found in the Scottish Parliament''s Information Centre (Bib. numbers 33909, 38496, 41341, 43712 and 47128).

Advice and assistance is granted by the solicitor subject to a test of the applicant''s financial eligibility. Solicitors then intimate to the board that advice and assistance has been granted. Applications for civil legal aid are made by solicitors to the Scottish Legal Aid Board on behalf of clients. The board grants legal aid subject to tests of financial eligibility, probable cause and reasonableness.

The board has directly employed a solicitor in Argyll and Bute since August 2006. However, this comprises two distinct phases of activity. During the initial phase (between February 2007 and April 2008) when the project delivered services with Argyll and Bute Council, it did not focus exclusively on casework and clients had to be referred by a local partner agency. In the second phase, since April 2008, the solicitor has focussed more on providing direct casework services to residents of Argyll and Bute who are having difficulties finding legal help or the services of a solicitor and who are eligible for civil legal assistance.

The following tables give the numbers of intimations of advice and assistance and applications for civil legal aid made by the Civil Legal Assistance service in Argyll and Bute, since its opening in November 2006. The information provided has been broken down by the groupings used in the Scottish Legal Aid Board''s annual report.

For civil legal aid, the difference between the number of applications and grants does not necessarily equate to the number of applications which have been refused. There may be applications which have not yet been assessed or for which additional information is required in order to enable assessment to be completed.

Advice and Assistance

Annual Report Grouping	Intimations
Adults with incapacity	1
Aliment/Child Support Agency	3
Breach of contract	2
Children (Scotland) Act	11
Complaints against professional bodies	1
Contact	4
Divorce	5
Employment	5
Employment Tribunals	1
Family/matrimonial-other	6
Hire purchase/debt	8
Housing	4
Immigration and asylum	1
Interdict/harassment/non-harassment	5
Other	2
Recovery of heritable property	9
Reparation	2
State benefit	2
Wills/executry	1
Total	73

Civil Legal Aid

Annual Report Grouping	Applications	Grants
Adults with incapacity	1	1
Debt	5	2
Family/matrimonial	11	7
Housing/recovery of heritable property	7	4
Other	1	1
Reparation	3	1
Total	28	16

 

Advice and assistance is granted by the solicitor subject to a test of the applicant''s financial eligibility. Solicitors then intimate to the board that advice and assistance has been granted.

Applications for civil legal aid are made by solicitors to the Legal Aid Board on behalf of clients. The board grants legal aid subject to tests of financial eligibility, probable cause and reasonableness. Although its solicitors are employed by the Scottish Legal Aid Board, the Highlands and Islands Civil Legal Assistance Office applies to the board in the same way as solicitors in private practice in order to ensure that its clients are eligible for civil legal aid. It also checks whether it is possible for a solicitor in private practice to act for the client under legal aid before providing services itself.

The following tables give the numbers of intimations of advice and assistance and applications for civil legal aid made by the Highlands and Islands Civil Legal Assistance Office since it began providing services in February 2008 (it was formally opened on 5 August 2008). The information provided has been broken down by the groupings used in the Scottish Legal Aid Board''s annual report.

For civil legal aid, the difference between the number of applications and grants does not necessarily equate to the number of applications which have been refused. There may be applications which have not yet been assessed or for which additional information is required in order to enable assessment to be completed.

Advice and Assistance

Annual Report Grouping	Intimations
Adults with incapacity	9
Aliment/Child Support Agency	4
Antisocial Behaviour Orders (ASBO)	7
Breach of contract	1
Children (Scotland) Act	20
Contact	28
Contempt of court	1
Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority	2
Divorce	11
Employment	4
Employment Tribunals	1
Family/matrimonial-other	15
Hire purchase/debt	8
Housing	23
Interdict/harassment/non-harassment	35
Mental health	2
Other	26
Power of attorney	1
Recovery of heritable property	10
Residence	18
Separation	8
State benefit	1
Total	235

Civil Legal Aid

Annual report grouping	Applications	Grants
Adults with incapacity	4	4
Appeals	11	5
Debt	5	0
Family/matrimonial	75	58
Housing/recovery of heritable property	10	5
Other	9	5
Reparation	1	0
Total	115	77

 

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The following table details the number of Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTP) completed by SPS over the last five years:

Establishment	SOTP Model	2004-05	2005-06	2006-07	2007-08	2008-09
Peterhead	Core	17	7	16	17	13
	Adapted	8	9	6	8	8
	Extended	8	8	0	8	8
	Rolling	9	18	16	19	16
Barlinnie	Rolling	0	13	14	14	14
Polmont	Core	7	7	8	12	12
	Rolling	0	0	0	0	12
Edinburgh	Rolling	11	14	17	15	16
Total Completed		60	76	77	93	87

Typically an average of one prisoner will drop out of each SOTP after starting the programme. This is consistent with research which indicates a 9% drop-out rate from adult offending behaviour programmes. Therefore from every nine prisoners scheduled to start SOTPs eight are expected to complete the programme, this drop-out rate is factored into programme planning.

Participation in rolling SOTP is based on treatment need which is linked to the individual''s level of risk. This results in some participants attending more sessions than others which can affect the overall number of completions when targeting delivery at higher risk offenders.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

SPS has monitored and researched its Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTPs) since their introduction in 1994.

A study of the pre-2000 programme revealed a difference of 6% reconviction rate between those who completed SOTPs and those who did not (at September 2006).

SPS is currently reviewing its approach to the evaluation of all its prisoner programmes including the SOTPs. In the meantime SOTP data continues to be collected and analysed.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

Sex offenders managed on the enhanced version of integrated case management (ICM) are subject to initial and annual case conferences.

A key aspect of these case conferences is the discussion around the options for addressing the individuals offending behaviour, including participation on appropriate prisoner programmes. Preparation and follow-up for these case conferences includes a discussion with the prisoner about prisoner programmes where the value of participation is explained. The aim of these discussions is to motivate and support the prisoner to make positive decisions about addressing their offending behaviour.

Prison staff, and particularly personal officers, also play their role in motivating prisoners to participate on prisoner programmes.

Sex offenders will normally be referred for assessment for Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTPs) where an explanation of the programme and the supports available can also motivate individuals to participate.

The SPS recognises that further work is needed in this area. Presently, a new SOTP is under development which will have a motivational aspect aimed at encouraging more sex offenders to participate on SOTPs.

I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

The SPS makes no such distinction between sex offenders. This information is not currently available for the last five years.

During 2007-08 a total of 93 offenders completed Sex Offender Treatment Programmes (SOTP). This represented 69% of the number assessed as suitable for participation in SOTP that year. Others listed as suitable may go on to complete the programme later in their sentence.