SLAB spending standstill masks year-on-year changes

Net cash expenditure on legal aid in Scotland fell by £750,000 in the year to 31 March 2016, according to the newly published annual report and accounts of the Scottish Legal Aid Board.

Total spending was £137,809,000, compared with £138,558,000 in 2014-15, and a budget for the year of £136.1m. However the accounts, after adjustments including depreciation, accruals and prepayments, record a net cost of operations down by more than £7m at £130.2m (2014-15: £137.3m).

Over the main categories of civil, criminal and children's legal aid, the headline total spending shows little change but masks some underlying variations which are explained in the report.

Civil legal aid grants saw a 1% fall, following a 3% decline in 2014-15. While gross expenditure was almost unchanged at £34.16m, a £1.2m increase in judicial recoveries helped net spending fall by £1.7m to £22.3m, the lowest since 2008-09. On civil advice and assistance, intimations also continued to decline (by 2%), but a higher number of asylum cases meant the overall spending rose.

The cost of the grant funding programme rose by £1.5m to £7.8m, while that of the Civil Legal Assistance Office went up by £50,000 to £1,397,000.

In the result, total net civil cash spending was almost unchanged at £47.771m compared with £47.788m.

The equivalent criminal total fell by £700,000 to £84.353m. Small rises were seen in both summary (up £550,000 to £29.808m) and solemn (up £910,000 to £36.337m). SLAB attributes the former to efforts to reduce the number of outstanding cases following a buildup un the previous two years, and the latter to accounts deriving from increased grants in previous years: the number of grants in 2015-16 was down by 9%. However there has been a reduction (unspecified) in the average cost of a case.

Spending on criminal appeals was sharply down, from £2,237,000 to £1,348,000, while criminal advice and assistance and ABWOR, for which accounts paid fell by 14% and 7% respectively, were down by more than £1.4m to £13.106m. The PDSO cost £2,129,000 compared with £2,026,000 in 2014-15.

Children's legal assistance fell from £5,233,000 to £5,105,000: the introduction of the Children's Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 has led to a shift in spending from children's legal aid to ABWOR.

Administration costs, which unlike grants of legal assistance have a budget cap, were at £12.218m compared with £12.370m, thanks to decreased running and capital costs following SLAB's office move.

For 2016-17, the legal aid budget has been cut to £126.1m.

Chief executive Colin Lancaster, who took over the top seat in September 2015, commented: “SLAB has a strong track record of effectively administering the legal aid system and delivering an increasing range of priorities for Scottish ministers.

“Good performance in 2015-16 has been evidenced through the delivery of a range of key activities set out in this annual report and accounts along with the full achievement of our current suite of key performance indicators.

“Through our effective consideration of legal aid applications and accounts, we have delivered our key function of managing the legal aid system.”

Click here to view the annual report.
http://www.slab.org.uk/common/documents/Annual_report_2015_2016/Annual_Report_and_Accounts.pdf

Click here for links to lists of fees paid to individual legal firms and advocates.
http://www.slab.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/annual-report/reports/2015-2016.html