Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill — Legal Aid for children — 17 Apr 2012 at 20:30

The majority of MPs voted against making legal aid available to children in a wider range of cases.

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 171

Lords amendment 171, which was rejected in this vote was[2][3]:

  • Page 115, line 5, at end insert—
  • “Children under 18
  • Civil legal services in relation to advice and proceedings where a child is, or proposes to be, the applicant or respondent in proceedings, or where the child is represented by a legal guardian, including—
  • (a) private family law;
  • (b) any benefit, allowance, payment, credit or pension under—
  • (i) the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992,
  • (ii) the Jobseekers Act 1995,
  • (iii) the State Pension Credit Act 2002,
  • (iv) the Tax Credits Act 2002,
  • (v) the Welfare Reform Act 2007,
  • (vi) the Welfare Reform Act 2012, or
  • (vii) any other enactment relating to social security;
  • (c) all areas of education law not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (d) all areas of housing law not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (e) all areas of debt-related disputes not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (f) all areas of immigration and asylum law not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (g) all areas of clinical negligence law not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (h) all areas of consumer law not otherwise covered in this Schedule;
  • (i) appeals to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority;
  • (j) civil legal services relating to a review or appeal under section 11 or 13 of the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007; and
  • (k) civil legal services relating to an appeal to the Supreme Court.”

The above would have been added to the start of Schedule 1 of the Bill where the civil legal services that can generally be made available under the arrangements for civil legal aid are described.

The explanatory notes[4] describe the effect of the rejected amendment as follows:

  • It would bring into the scope of civil legal aid services for a number of areas of law where a child is a party to proceedings or is represented by a legal guardian.

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Debate in Parliament | Source |

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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.

PartyMajority (Aye)Minority (No)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con253 (+1 tell) 0083.0%
DUP0 80100.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 231 (+2 tell)090.7%
LDem41 (+1 tell) 2077.2%
PC0 30100.0%
Respect0 10100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
Total:294 250085.9%

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

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Mike HancockPortsmouth Southwhilst LDem (front bench)no
John LeechManchester, WithingtonLDem (front bench)no

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