Legal Advice and Assistance (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland

1996 No. 411

LEGAL AID AND ADVICE

Legal Advice and Assistance (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made

23rd August 1996

To be laid before Parliament

Coming into operation

7th October 1996

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 14, 22 and 27 of the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981(1) and now vested in him(2), and with the concurrence of the Treasury, hereby makes the following Regulations:—

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Legal Advice and Assistance (Amendment No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and shall come into operation on 7th October 1996.

(2) In these Regulations, “the principal Regulations” means the Legal Advice and Assistance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1981(3) and a Regulation or Schedule referred to by number shall mean the Regulation or Schedule so numbered in the principal Regulations.

Amendment to the principal Regulations

2.  The principal Regulations shall be amended as follows:—

(a) in Regulation 3, after the definition of “the Fund” there shall be inserted the following definition—

• ““income-based jobseeker’s allowance” has the meaning given by Article 3(4) of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995(4), but, except for the purposes of paragraph (e) of Schedule 4, excludes any sum treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance by virtue of Article 28 of that Order;”;

(b) in Regulations 5(2)(b), 6(2)(b) and 7(2) after the words “income support,” on each occasion there shall be inserted the words “income-based jobseeker’s allowance,”;

(c) after paragraph 6(b) of Schedule 1 there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(c) there shall be left out of account so much of any back to work bonus received under Article 28 of the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 as is by virtue of that Article to be treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance.”;

(d) in paragraph (e) of Schedule 4, after the words “income support” there shall be inserted “, income-based jobseeker’s allowance,”.

Mackay of Clashfern, C.

Dated 23rd August 1996

We concur

L.S.

Bowen Wells

Roger Knapman

Two of the Lords Commissioners of Her Majesty’s Treasury

Dated 2nd September 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Legal Advice and Assistance Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1981 so as to provide that—

(a) a person in receipt of income-based jobseeker’s allowance, when applying for advice and assistance, must provide information to show that he is in receipt of that benefit;

(b) a solicitor need not determine the disposable income of a person in receipt of income-based jobseeker’s allowance who applies for advice and assistance;

(c) any back to work bonus treated as payable by way of a jobseeker’s allowance is excluded from the computation of income or capital.

(1)

S.I. 1981/228 (N.I. 8): Article 14 was amended by the Jobseekers (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 (S.I. 1995/2705 (N.I. 15), Schedule 3, paragraph 2(4). Article 27 is an interpretation provision and is recited because of the meaning assigned to the words “prescribed” and “regulations”

(2)

S.I. 1982/159

(3)

S.R. 1981 No. 366; as amended by S.R. 1988 No. 87, S.R. 1992 No. 105 and S.R. 1993 No. 124. There are other amendments not relevant to these Regulations

(4)

S.I. 1995/2705 (N.I. 15)