Scottish Legal Aid Board annual report

 

LESS is being spent on legal assistance in Scotland, while the amount paid to advocates has risen in the last year, the Scottish Legal Aid Board (SLAB) has announced.

In its report for 2016-2017, SLAB said the cost to the taxpayer of legal assistance was £135.7 million. In the previous three years, it had been £137.8m, £138.6m and £150.5m.

Payments to advocates in 2016-2017 totalled £15m, up from £14.5m last year, while the figure for solicitors was £102.4m (from £104.8m), and for solicitor advocates it was £3m (from £2.8m).

The report can be seen at http://www.slab.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/annual-report/

See a Faculty submission to a legal aid consultation by the International Bar Association here