Law centres in High Court challenge over housing duty solicitor changes

The High Court will this week (21-22 May) hear a challenge from the Law Centres Network (LCN) to changes that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) wants to introduce to the provision of housing duty solicitor desks in County Courts.

“These desks provide immediate legal advice, assistance and advocacy to people at risk of losing their home," the LCN said.

"These people, often vulnerable, commonly face possession proceedings due to rent arrears or mortgage debt. To them, stakes are high – they might be evicted and become homeless – so this timely assistance is vital.”

There are currently 113 Housing Possession Court Duty schemes (HPCDS) across England and Wales, but the Ministry last year decided to consolidate them into only 47 schemes, each covering larger geographical areas.

Currently, the Ministry sets the fees for the service, and organisations wanting to deliver it bid for contracts at these fixed fees. Last year, the MoJ also decided to introduce a price competition among bidders.

The Law Centres Network will this week ask Mrs Justice Andrews to quash the MoJ’s decision to proceed with the tender.

It argues that the Ministry “chose to dismantle HPCDS as we know it based on questionable and untested assumptions, and without any serious analysis of how this might affect the people for whom the service is intended”.

The LCN said the MoJ had decided to press ahead despite overwhelming opposition from duty desk providers which responded to its consultation on the matter.

The network said that “highly unusually”, the Legal Aid Agency completed its HPCDS tender much faster than it had predicted.

Out of 12 law centres currently holding duty desk contracts, only three have won their bids to operate duty contracts from the autumn.

Julie Bishop, director of the Law Centres Network, said: “Law Centres have provided the duty court scheme for 17 years. It is an important way to contact people in crisis who don’t know how or where to find help. Yet for unknown reasons, the MoJ has decided that it is completely ‘rational’ to ‘fix’ something that is not broken, while ignoring the view of expert practitioners. We are dedicated to giving legal assistance to people in need, and are sick and tired of watching vital services be degraded.”

The LCN is instructing solicitor Polly Brendon of the Public Law Project. Counsel are Jason Coppel QC and Edward Capewell of 11 King’s Bench Walk.