Consultation: Housing Legal Aid - The Way Forward

Added 25 Nov 2021

The Ministry of Justice has opened a consultation on changes to the Housing Legal Aid programme.

The main proposals are:

remodel the delivery to become a new Housing Loss Prevention Advice Service (HLPAS), incorporating both the existing service of advice and representation at court but also early legal advice before court
expanding the scope of legal aid so that HLPAS providers can offer early legal advice on social welfare law matters to individuals facing procession proceedings
contracts for individual courts rather than larger geographical areas
allowing providers to claim for the court duty fee in addition to a Legal Help fee for follow on work
introducing a set attendance fee for all schemes, replacing the existing nil session payment

The consultation runs until 20th January 2022 and can be found here.