Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill — Preserving Face-to-Face Initial Legal Aid Advice — 17 Apr 2012 at 17:30

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.

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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%
Con261 (+1 tell) 0085.6%
DUP0 80100.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent0 10100.0%
Lab0 230 (+2 tell)090.3%
LDem39 (+1 tell) 1071.9%
PC0 30100.0%
Respect0 10100.0%
SDLP0 2066.7%
Total:300 248086.5%

Rebel Voters - sorted by constituency

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
John LeechManchester, WithingtonLDem (front bench)no

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