The Legal Aid in Criminal and Care Proceedings (General) (Amendment) (No. 3) Regulations 1996

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Legal Aid in Criminal and Care Proceedings (General) Regulations 1989 so as

(a) to take into account the introduction of a new “passport benefit”, the income-based jobseeker’s allowance, receipt of which entitles an applicant to criminal legal aid if he satisfies the interests of justice test (regulations 2, 4, 9 and 11(a));

(b) to strengthen the provisions which require applicants for criminal legal aid (and their representatives) to provide information about their financial or other circumstances and to enable a legal aid order to be withdrawn where information is not provided or false information is given (regulations 3, 5 to 8 and 15);

(c) to amend Form 1 in Schedule 2 to the Regulations to make it clear that applicants for criminal legal aid must provide documentary evidence that they are entitled to criminal legal aid because they are in receipt of one of the “passporting benefits” (income-based jobseeker’s allowance, income support, family credit or disability working allowance) and to make a consequential amendment to Form 5 (regulations 10, 11(b) and 12);

(d) to amend Form 5 to reflect the changes made by the Legal Aid in Criminal and Care Proceedings (General) (Amendment) Regulations 1996 in the computation of capital and income of an applicant for legal aid (regulations 13 and 14).