Doug Beattie calls for independent review of NI legal aid bill

UUP justice spokesman Doug Beattie has called for a review of NI’s legal aid, asking how comparatively wealthy Gerry Adams can qualify for it when so many victims cannot.
Doug Beattie has called for a review of legal aid hereDoug Beattie has called for a review of legal aid here
Doug Beattie has called for a review of legal aid here

He said a review was also critical because the auditor general qualified last year’s annual accounts for the body which dispenses legal aid in NI due to “fraud and error”.

Last week Mr Adams, the former Sinn Fein president, won his appeal to have two convictions for attempting to escape from prison in the 1970s overturned.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Supreme Court said his convictions were quashed because Mr Adams’ detention, under internment, was unlawful.

The news prompted Mr Beattie to call for an external and independent root and branch investigation into NI’s legal aid system.

“The news that Gerry Adams received legal aid to fight against his conviction for trying to escape from the Maze has brought into sharp focus the issue of legal aid in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“Particularly, just how and why someone with the expansive means of Gerry Adams – through book sales and pensions from Westminster, Stormont and the Dail, plus property owned – be entitled to legal aid, when so many victims are told they are not entitled to it?”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mr Beattie was very concerned that last year’s accounts for the legal aid body, the Legal Services Agency for NI, were qualified due to ‘fraud and error’ concerns. There is no suggestion of any fraud or error in Mr Adams’ legal case.

The UUP MLA added: “Quite incredibly, our legal aid bill here in Northern Ireland has been qualified since 2003. Yet since then very little has been done to forensically address the issue of a legal aid system that is by far the most generous in the whole of the UK. The will simply does not seem to be there, there is no appetite or ability to challenge the status quo that serves vested interests so well.”

He said the Public Accounts Committee report of 2017 was “scathing” of the Department of Justice’s (DoJ) attempts to get the legal aid bill under control. He noted that the auditor general was unable to fully sign off last year’s annual accounts for the Legal Services Agency of Northern Ireland, saying he could not to satisfy himself that “fraud and error” by claimants and lawyers did not exist within eligibility assessments.

The auditor general said incorrect expenditure of £5.9 million had been due to “official error”, a sum Mr Beattie described as “eye watering”.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The DoJ responded that the granting of legal aid in any case is a matter for independent judges.

There is no financial eligibility test for criminal matters granted by the Court of Appeal, in contrast to applications for civil legal aid, it said.

Spending has been cut from £111.9m in 2014/15 to £89.3m in 2019/20 and DoJ is taking “robust measures” to address fraud, it added, and independent reviews ending in 2011 and 2015 have either been implemented or form part of planned reforms.

Sinn Fein was invited to comment.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our advertisers - and consequently the revenue we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you taking out a digital subscription.

Subscribe to newsletter.co.uk and enjoy unlimited access to the best Northern Ireland and UK news and information online and on our app. With a digital subscription, you can read more than 5 articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Our journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them. By supporting us, we are able to support you in providing trusted, fact-checked content for this website.

Alistair Bushe

Editor