Chamber and committees

As the Minister for Transport and Islands explained in the recent ‘Edinburgh Airport Flight Path Trial’ Member’s debate, the Scottish Government has no decision-making role in this issue which is reserved to the UK Government. Such a role is a matter for the Civil Aviation Authority. However, we would expect that Edinburgh Airport and the Civil Aviation Authority will engage fully with stakeholders and communities as they consider the next steps in the process. As Members may know, following the intervention of the Minister for Transport and Islands, Edinburgh Airport announced on 16 September 2015 that the current trial will end in October 2015, rather than December 2015 as originally planned. This was a helpful response to the concerns expressed by a number of members and we would encourage the airport to act in a similarly constructive way when conducting its future consultations with the local community.

The non-profit distributing model is delivering additionality in the infrastructure programme at a time when conventional capital budgets have been significantly reduced as a result of the UK Government’s approach to the public finances. All projects are subject to rigorous value for money considerations as part of their development and procurement.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) paid solicitors £107.7 million pounds in legal aid fees in 2014-15.

SLAB can only make payments for work that falls within the boundaries of legal aid legislation approved by Parliament. This forms a key part of SLAB’s duty to obtain best value for the taxpayer through the delivery of efficient legal assistance in Scotland.

Solicitors are provided with guidance on what work is and is not chargeable and also when the Act and Regulations require them to seek permission from SLAB to carry out specific work or to increase the amount of expenditure they have to use on a case.

Solicitors are paid for all work that complies with this guidance and which is actually and reasonably done, with due regard to economy.

However, there are circumstances where the level of claim may be reduced following discussions between SLAB and the solicitor. Payments on any undisputed amounts are made while these discussions are ongoing. Circumstances may include:

Work being carried out prior to the effective date of the grant of legal assistance;

The incorrect level of fees being claimed;

No sanction having been granted by SLAB for additional expenditure e.g. the use of an expert witness;

Failure to provide vouching for incurring certain types of expenditure e.g. a medical report;

Work being claimed for that is not chargeable under the legal aid regulations e.g. letters of engagement;

An increase in expenditure from SLAB not being sought at the appropriate time resulting in insufficient expenditure to cover the work undertaken;

Claiming for work done by staff that are paid a salary by the firm and therefore cannot claim for the work that they do on behalf of the solicitor.

If a solicitor considers that SLAB has not applied the legislation correctly and dispute the amount SLAB has paid, they have the option of taking the matter to ‘taxation’ to be considered by an independent auditor of court.

When a payment can be made by the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) for work carried out will depend on the lifecycle of the case and the time it subsequently takes for the solicitor to submit an account to SLAB. This is not in SLAB’s control and the solicitor may never in fact submit an account.

SLAB will make payment to the solicitor for all the elements of the account which fall within the boundaries of the legal aid legislation. Any disputed charges are then discussed which may result in SLAB making further payments on the account.

SLAB has targets for assessing accounts that have been submitted and these are approved each year by ministers. The service standards vary depending upon the type of account. They are: 15 working days for fixed fee accounts and civil judicial expenses accounts, 20 working days for all other part payments and final accounts and 20 working days for the discussions on any element not paid in the first instance.

The following table shows the average time (excluding discussions) that it takes for SLAB to make a payment to solicitors and advocates over the last few years:

‘Outstanding’ has been interpreted as grants of legal assistance which have had an account submitted and are under consideration (action with SLAB). Although a claim has not been settled (or settled in full) and therefore may be considered to be outstanding. The vast majority of these will still be within SLAB’s service standards and cannot therefore be considered overdue.

The administration and Legal Aid Fund budget provision for 2015-16 will increase by £3.6 million. The published budget for 2015-16 is as shown in the following tables:

The Scottish Legal Aid Board’s (SLAB) target is to pay 97% of accounts submitted within their service standards. For 2015-16 (to August) its performance is exceeding this.

The average time (excluding discussions) that it takes SLAB to make a payment to solicitors and advocates is currently around 12 working days.

The Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) is a non-departmental public body. Its work is funded by the Scottish Government in two ways.

An administration budget funded through grant-in-aid is provided to cover the running costs of SLAB such as its staff and accommodation costs. This enables SLAB to deliver its statutory duties and functions. Funding is cash limited but can be varied to allow for additional work required to deliver ministerial priorities.

Funding is also provided for the Legal Aid Fund which is then used to pay for the costs of legal aid cases and SLAB’s grant funding programme. Amongst other things, this covers the costs of fees for solicitors and advocates. This funding is not cash limited but instead is demand led and the Scottish Government has an obligation to make funds available for cases that meet the statutory tests.

The Legal Aid Fund and grant-in-aid funding received over the period requested, and arising from this demand led system, is as set out in the following table:

As outlined in the answer to S4W-27451 on 25 September 2015, ‘outstanding’ has been interpreted as grants of legal assistance which have had an account submitted and are under consideration (action with the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB)). Although a claim has not been settled (or settled in full) and therefore may be considered to be outstanding, the vast majority of these will still be within SLAB’s service standards and cannot therefore be considered overdue.

Below are the figures as at the end of August 2015 and the comparable figure from August 2014. This data is not available for previous years. As SLAB pays on average around 21,000 accounts per month to a value of around £12 million, these figures represent around 12 days worth of payments.

All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament’s website, the search facility for which can be found at:

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Education authorities and other agencies have duties under the Additional Support for Learning Act 2004 (as amended) to identify, provide for and review the additional support needs of their pupils. It is for education authorities to ensure that they have sufficient resources, including teaching and support staff to ensure that they meet their statutory responsibilities.

The following table shows teachers with additional support needs for learning as their main subject, 2007 to 2014:

1. This includes teachers in primary, secondary, special schools, and centrally employed teachers, with their main subject recorded as: learning support secondary; learning support, primary; special education needs (SEN) (primary) non-recorded pupils; SEN (recorded pupils); SEN (secondary) non-recorded pupils; SEN Behavioural Support; SEN Learning Difficulties; SEN Physical Disabilities; Hearing Impairment; or Visual Impairment.

2. Data for 2007 does not include centrally employed teachers as the main subject of these teachers could not be identified. Therefore data for 2007 is not directly comparable with other years. Across all subjects, there were 964 centrally employed teachers in 2007.

3. Scotland total includes teachers at grant aided schools.