Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill — Preserving Face-to-Face Initial Legal Aid Advice — 17 Apr 2012 at 17:30
Richard Ottaway MP, Croydon South voted to allow initial legal aid advice to be provided online or by phone rather than requiring it be offered in face to face.
The majority of MPs voted against requiring initial legal aid advice be provided face to face rather than online or by phone.
MPs were considering the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill[1]. The motion passed in this vote was:
- That this House disagrees with Lords amendment 24
Lords amendment 24, which was rejected in this vote was[2]:
- Page 21, line 6, leave out subsection (2) and insert—
- “( ) Notwithstanding subsection (1), the Lord Chancellor’s duty under section 1(1) must include a duty to secure that a person eligible to legal aid advice is able to access it in a range of forms at the outset, including securing the provision of initial face-to-face advice.”
The above would have taken effect on Clause 26 of the Bill[3] which relates to an individual's choice of provider of services funded by legal aid. Subsection two which was retained as a result of this vote stated:
- The Lord Chancellor may discharge that duty, in particular, by arranging for the services to be provided by telephone or by other electronic means.
The explanatory notes[4] describe the effect of the rejected amendment 24 as follows:
- Lords Amendment 24 would place a duty on the Lord Chancellor to secure that a person eligible for legal aid advice is able to access it in a range of forms from the outset, including by securing the provision of initial face-to-face advice.
==
- [1] Parliament's webpage on the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill (now an Act)
- [2] Lords amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill
- [3] Clause 26 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill
- [4] Explanatory notes to the Lords amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill
Party Summary
Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.
What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.
What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.
What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.
Party | Majority (Aye) | Minority (No) | Both | Turnout |
Alliance | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
Con | 261 (+1 tell) | 0 | 0 | 85.6% |
DUP | 0 | 8 | 0 | 100.0% |
Green | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
Independent | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
Lab | 0 | 230 (+2 tell) | 0 | 90.3% |
LDem | 39 (+1 tell) | 1 | 0 | 71.9% |
PC | 0 | 3 | 0 | 100.0% |
Respect | 0 | 1 | 0 | 100.0% |
SDLP | 0 | 2 | 0 | 66.7% |
Total: | 300 | 248 | 0 | 86.5% |
Rebel Voters - sorted by party
MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division
Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote
Name | Constituency | Party | Vote |
John Leech | Manchester, Withington | LDem (front bench) | no |