Lord Blencathra – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Blencathra on 2014-03-24.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how much has been paid in legal aid fees over the last five years to law firms Public Interest Lawyers and Leigh Day to conduct cases alleging abuse by British soldiers.

Lord Faulks

The Legal Aid Agency (LAA) cannot separately identify legal aid cases for those Iraqis alleging abuse by British Soldiers without disproportionate costs. Legal aid cases are not systematically recorded against nationality or cause of action.

Leigh Day have not acted under legal aid in these types of cases. Public Interest Lawyers have acted for Iraqi clients under legal aid in cases seeking investigations into deaths and mistreatment.

The net payments to Public Interest Lawyers over the past five years were:

These payments cover all work undertaken by the firm under legal aid. The payments made will be offset by recoupment on successful cases where the opponent has paid the costs.