LSC accounts qualified again but 'irregular payments' fall

The National Audit Office (NAO) has again qualified the LSC's community legal service and criminal defence service accounts, but said the total amount of 'irregular payments' had fallen from £49m last year to £35.6m.

A spokesman for the NAO said this included £20.4m paid to legal aid providers where the claim was not in compliance with the statutory fee regime, and £15.2m in legal aid payments for people who were not eligible, or whose eligibility could not be proven.

However, he said the commission had made 'significant improvements' in total irregular expenditure.

'The main areas of improvement are immigration and family legal help schemes (where estimated irregularity has fallen from £14.0m to £2.8m) and the civil representation scheme (where irregularity has fallen from £18.2m to £12.8m).

'However, irregularity has increased for some schemes. For example, claims made by solicitors and advocates in relation to Crown Court cases, which since 1 January 2011 have been administered by the Commission instead of HM Courts and Tribunals Service, have seen the estimated irregularity increase significantly since 2010-11 from £1m to £4.5m.'

The NAO report said this was 'largely due to quality control issues' as staff at the LSC became familiar with the rules. It noted that the commission was addressing the issues, partly through training, and was also working to ensure that providers were submitting the right supporting information.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: 'The Legal Services Commission has made significant progress in the last year and I have noted the reduction in payment errors in my report.

'However, the error rate, particularly in relation to legal aid providers, is still high.'

Morse said the need for further progress was particularly strong given the LASPO reforms.

Matthew Coats, LSC chief executive, said this year's report highlighted 'strong progress' at the organisation, which had worked hard to improve performance and reduce processing times.

Coats said the LSC had also improved its records and processes for debt management and welcomed the removal of the NAO's account qualification relating to debtor balances that was in place for 2010-11.