Gordon attacks “scandal” of Government help for travellers.
It has been revealed that the Government is funding a helpline for travellers, which gives legal advice on how to avoid eviction from unauthorised encampments.
Despite a Ministerial denial that such a helpline exists, Gordon Henderson has found out that the Legal Services Commission - a Government funded Quango – has a helpline that provides advice for travellers.
Through this helpline travellers are receiving advice on how to use the Human Rights Act to circumvent planning rules, whilst law abiding citizens who adhere to planning rules, face a cut in legal aid.
Gordon said:
‘This is quite scandalous. Taxpayers should not be funding an advice service which helps travellers abuse the planning system. It is not fair that we should have one set of rules for travellers and another for everyone else.
‘We have seen in Upchurch how difficult it is for Swale Borough Council to evict travellers from the unauthorised camp in Oak Lane. It is hardly surprising that these people are cocking a snoop at our planning laws if they are being actively encouraged to do so by this Government quango. Has the world gone mad?
‘I understand that John Prescott’s department has denied travellers are being helped in this way. Either it is totally incompetent of the Government to allow taxpayer’s money to be wasted in funding a helpline for illegally encamped travellers without its knowledge, or, the Deputy Prime Minister is being economical with the truth.
‘Villagers who have witnessed the unauthorised occupation of land by travellers, such as those living in Upchurch, have a right to ask why the Government is spending money helping travellers break the law, whilst at the same time cutting back on the legal aid budget.
‘Recently we heard that the Government was going to get tough on travellers. If anyone actually believed that drivel, this revelation will surely show that we have been conned yet again! As with asylum and immigration, this Government talks tough, but is really a soft touch.’
…ends…
More Police: Cleaner Hospitals:
Lower Taxes: School Discipline: Controlled Immigration.
Notes to
editors
The Government
denied funding a helpline for travellers.
Hansard, 31 Jan 2005 : Column 655W
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the
Deputy Prime Minister what helpline services the Government provide to
travellers; and how much was spent on such services in the last period for which
figures are available. [211924]
Yvette Cooper: The Government
do not provide any helplines specific to gypsies and travellers.
Hansard, 31 Jan 2005 : Column 726W
Mrs. Spelman: To ask the
Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs what the
estimated cost of legal aid to Travellers has been in each year since 1997.
[211918]
Mr. Lammy: I am unable to
provide an answer as the Department does not record or hold the information
requested.
How
the Government funds legal advice and a helpline to travellers:
1. The Travellers helpline,
including advice on planning law – provided by the Community Law Partnership
http://www.guideinformation.org.uk/guide/search_index_detail.lasso?RecID=G19344
"The Community Law
Partnership is a radical progressive firm of solicitors specialising in housing
law and advising Travellers - especially around evictions, planning and site
problems. They aim to give a personal, expert and friendly service to all
clients. It provides legal advice by telephone and post, to people who could not
otherwise reach or afford legal advisers. It is provided by qualified,
independent advisers or solicitors whose work is carried out to Specialist
Quality Mark standards and it is funded by the Government... The Community Law
Partnership is part of the Community Legal Service (CLS)"
2. The Community Legal
Service is part of the Legal Services Commission, a quango of the Department for
Constitutional Affairs. The Legal Services Commission's "Equalities Annual
Report 2003/04" states http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/docs/about_us_main/EAR.pdf
(p.18) outlines funding for the "Cambridgeshire Travellers Initiative
Project Eastern region - To fund a coordinator who will facilitate and provide
advocacy services for the travellers"
3. The Legal Service
Commission's Annual Report 2003/04 http://www.legalservices.gov.uk/docs/about_us_main/annual_report_2003-04.pdf
(p.46) outlines how the Government does provide helpline support, and intends to
increase taxpayer funding for such services.
"In addition to the
national telephone service, we will continue to fund telephone advice in a
number of categories in particular areas of the country. This includes housing
and employment advice and a housing and planning law advice line for travellers
and gypsies. We plan to include these categories within the national
system when more resources
are available for additional caseworkers."
Legal
Aid cuts to middle classes and increases to Asylum seekers:
This comes amid middle
classes losing access to legal aid – with the body funding the travellers
(Legal Services Commission) proposing to make the cuts, so that legal aid is
“properly targeted” http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/breaking/view=newsarticle.law?GAZETTENEWSID=201956
Homeowners ‘to lose access’ to legal aid
Thursday 28 October 2004
Legal aid practitioners this week slammed Legal Services Commission (LSC)
proposals that they say will effectively exclude all homeowners from eligibility
for legal aid and could force many firms to abandon this work altogether.
Responding to an LSC
consultation on reform of the civil legal aid system, the Legal Aid
Practitioners Group (LAPG) said the proposals would impose a significant
bureaucratic burden on solicitors.
The consultation paper
proposes abolishing the current rule that excludes the first £100,000 of equity
in an applicant’s home for the purposes of calculating eligibility for civil
legal aid.
The LAPG warned that scrapping the equity disregard could force many firms to
drop legal aid work because all family ancillary relief work – the ‘last
remaining factor’ that keeps many firms within the legal aid scheme – would
no longer be eligible for public funding. The vast majority of ancillary relief
cases concern equity in the family home. LAPG director Richard Miller said:
‘To all intents and purposes this would exclude every single homeowner from
eligibility for legal aid. It will exclude people with no liquid assets at
all.’
He continued: ‘The
proposals will force solicitors to carry out a detailed calculation in every
case, not just cases that come close to the equity limit.’
Mr Miller added that the
consultation did not resolve the issue of joint ownership and would arbitrarily
disadvantage those who have taken out a repayment mortgage rather than an
endowment mortgage, where the loan is not paid off and equity boosted until the
endowment matures.
Colin Ettinger, president of the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers, said
plans to scrap the equity waiver would be a ‘shackle’ on claimants’ access
to justice. He said: ‘It is already notoriously difficult to bring a claim
against the NHS and this move will block access to legal aid for a huge portion
of society.’
In its response, the Law
Society said the plans would unfairly disenfranchise a large proportion of those
currently eligible for legal aid and cause inequitable variations across the
country.
LSC head of
funding policy Colin Stutt said the LSC was under a duty to ensure the legal aid
budget was properly targeted at the most vulnerable of society, and the equity
disregard would not be removed without safeguards.
At the same
time, the cost of legal aid to asylum seekers has soared under Labour.
In 1996-97, the cost of legal
aid to asylum seekers (covering all legal advice and assistance in respect of
immigration and nationality matters) was £26 million (Hansard, 29 April 2004,
col. 1249W.)
In 2003-04, the cost of legal
aid to asylum seekers, as administered by the Legal Services Commission,
(covering all legal advice and assistance in respect of immigration and
nationality matters – but as the Government state ‘the vast majority are
thought to relate to asylum’ ) was £204 million , with the Government stating
that ‘cash figures are expected to remain high in 2004-05 as work continues to
clear immigration and asylum backlogs’.
(sources: Hansard, 21 July
2004, col. 375W, Hansard, 29 April 2004, col. 1249W, Hansard, 21 July 2004, col.
375W