Jack Straw’s frustrations with the running of the £2.1 billion a year legal aid scheme were laid bare this week along with the policy clashes that have led to the demise of the body in charge.
Condemning the inefficiencies of the Legal Services Commission (LSC), its overstaffing and overweening policy remit, the Justice Secretary told MPs: “One of my frustrations is, typically, getting at what precisely is going on with this arm’s-length body that has been pushing officials in my department away. That would have been OK if they had been running an efficient ship but I am afraid they had not.”
The LSC, Mr Straw added, had 60 officials working on policy. “That is not their job. The issue of policy is for the Ministry of Justice.” To have two sets of policy makers made negotiations very difficult because they were making policy as well as his department, he added.
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