'Ambulance-chasing lawyers' have abused legal aid in claims against British soldiers

Lawyers bringing claims against the actions of British soldiers in Iraq are taking advantage of legal aid and human rights provisions, Sir Nick Harvey has said.

The former armed forces minister told the BBC Radio 5 live breakfast show this morning that the task facing the Iraq Historic Allegations Team (Ihat) had 'multiplied ten-fold' since its inception in 2010, with lawyers looking to cash-in on the process.

The former Liberal Democrat MP, who helped set up Ihat, said: 'There are lawyers out chasing the work, who have drummed up allegations that are forming part of this process.'

In facts revealed on the show, Ihat was initially looking into 152 cases in 2010 but now faces more than 1,500. The defence minister expects the number to rise until changes are made.

'Some of these 1,500 cases must be fairly trivial and some way of disposing with those and getting the task down to a manageable scale is surely needed,' he said.

Last year it was reported that British taxpayers were paying £150m to defend British soldiers accused by enemy fighters of breaching human rights provisions for their actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hilary Meredith, whose firm is known for handling armed forces accidents worldwide, believes foreigners should be stopped from suing the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for warzone crimes. On Twitter she wrote: 'The legal aid loophole allowing non-UK tax payers to use public money to sue our armed forces needs to be plugged - NOW'.

On the issue of legal aid being provided for claimants, Harvey said: 'It always mystified me that we were willing to pay the full costs for anybody in any part of Iraq to come forward with an allegation, however weak or strong it might be.'

He continued: 'I raised it with the [Ministry of Justice] at the time and said it seemed to us, in the MoD, an extraordinary way of spending public money, particularly at a time when legal aid was being cut back for British citizens with grievances in British courts.'

'The MoJ at the time said that they didn't think there was anything they could do about that,' he said. 'I don't know whether that is still the case or it is something parliament will have to take a view on or even legislate on, but clearly this thing has spun out of control and is going to go on, more or less, forever unless we can find some way of putting some boundaries down.'

The Human Rights Act has helped victims of suspected abuse by British soldiers to bring claims in the UK, but the former MP said its remit should not apply to a battlefield situation.

'That is what the Geneva Convention is for and that would be a far better way of approaching all of these issues.'

Harvey added: 'It would do irreparable damage to the British armed forces working in other parts of the world if you can have this many allegations of unlawful killing and we simply brush it under the carpet, don't look into it, and appear to pretend it never happened.'

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: 'Abuses of the system which target our armed forces will not be tolerated. We are introducing a residence test which will prevent people who don’t have strong connections to the UK from claiming civil legal aid. 

'We will also seek to better protect soldiers from spurious human rights claims through our Bill of Rights. Firms suspected of misconduct are being investigated and we won’t hesitate to take action if wrongdoing is proven.'

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