Legal aid reform: discussion paper

Programme of Reform

This paper sets out the potential features of the reformed legal aid system we envision, for immediate discussion with stakeholders. This will in turn inform the scope and content of the necessary legislation and the programme of change needed to implement it. This legislation will be for a new parliamentary term but we will prepare for it in this term.

Currently, the vast majority of legal aid supported services are funded on a case-by-case basis and delivered by solicitors applying for funding for individual cases (“judicare”). This can be delivered either by private providers, not for profit providers or services staffed by Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) employed solicitors.

Other services can be commissioned by SLAB through a grant or contract (commissioning tools). These are the funding tools available to the Scottish Government for delivering legal assistance services. Grant funding has been used to provide targeted services where there was an identified unmet need, and this has shown that there could be merit in extending the use of grants and contracts to provide stability of services.

We will also explore and test how the full range of currently available funding tools can help achieve emerging government and justice priorities, support different methods of delivery, and tackle evidenced problems effectively.

We will engage with stakeholders on three key strands of work:

• Judicare simplifications we can deliver as immediate reform actions in 2025-2026;
• research on, and reform of, legal aid fees in 2025;
• developing a future legal assistance system in 2025 and beyond.

In the short term we can make it easier both for solicitors to work with legal aid funding and for users to access it. We have identified priorities to action in 2025-2026 as the first steps in an ongoing plan for the improvement of judicare through a package of reforms which will simplify the current system and address a number of its challenges.