GP surgeries to be provided with in-house lawyers for patients

Lawyers are to be provided in GP surgeries to offer legal advice to patients as part of a Government overhaul of the £1.6bn a year legal aid system.

Justice Minister Lucy Frazer said the lawyers could advise patients who “might not know they have a legal issue” over their finances or housing.

She said the aim was to catch vulnerable people early to prevent a problem escalating into a lengthy court battle that could cost them and the taxpayer thousands of pounds.

The move will be backed by a £5m fund to develop innovative ways of providing legal support including using of Skype or video links for lawyers’ advice sessions and apps that could turn lengthy written arguments into legal submissions.

It is part of a year-long review of earlier reforms to the legal aid system which slashed the previous £2bn a year budget by £400m in a bid to provide better value for money but led to widespread criticism that thousands were denied access to justice.

Ms Frazer also announced an expansion of the scope of legal aid to include children currently excluded including separated migrant children and those subject to guardianship orders.

She also unveiled a review of the current thresholds for legal aid entitlement and a possible widening of eligibility, which she said could see “significant sums” being invested in the system. The income limit for legal aid is currently £733 a month.

An extra £3m over two years is also to be invested to provide advice and support for so-called “litigants in person”, people who represent themselves in court. Their numbers have mushroomed in face of the £400m cuts.

Ms Frazer said the concept of lawyers in GPs’ surgeries was a response to the review which found “overwhelming” support for early intervention to prevent potentially expensive legal actions needing government aid. Two pilots have already been launched in Bristol and Newham in east London.

“We will catch people who don’t know they have a legal issue before them come to us,” she said. “A lot of people who suffer from mental health problems may have debt issues or housing problems.

“They might not have sought advice for those issues and they are not getting help with their housing. We can nip that in the bud to sort out the issue.”

The Ministry of Justice is also to pilot an expansion of early face to face legal advice in social welfare law so people could resolve problems quickly before they went to court.

It will also scrap the current requirement for people seeking civil legal advice to go through a telephone system and instead reinstate face to face legal advice.

Ms Frazer said: “We are emphasising the need for new technologies and new ideas to catch people early, before their problems escalate to the courtroom.

“We will expand the scope of legal aid to cover new areas of family law, launch a review of legal aid eligibility thresholds, invest up to £5 million in delivering innovative services and test new methods of support to help people resolve their problems quickly and easily, in the way that best works for them.”