ASA does the maths on the LSC’s procurement plans

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has divided England and Wales into 134 procurement areas. In the summer of 2009 the LSC published procurement plans (the 2009 plans) for those areas that would be subject to the 2010 bid round. Updated versions of these plans (the 2010 plans) were published in late January and early February 2010, and form the basis of the Invitations to Tender that have now been issued.
 
Each plan set out the number of cases that the LSC wanted to fund in family and in social welfare law (SWL), i.e. debt, housing, welfare benefits, community care and employment. It also gave the numbers of such cases that had been started in a previous 12-month period (April 08 – March 09 for the 2009 plans, September 08 – August 09 for the 2010 plans).
 
There are 125 plans that contain allocations for SWL. We have compared those 2010 plans with their predecessors.
 
Our analysis shows that:

• The total number of proposed SWL cases has dropped from 422,992 in the 2009 plans to 351,610 in the 2010 plans, a drop of almost 17%.
• 45 areas have had their total allocation reduced so that it is less than the number of cases started in September 08 – August 09, by up to 10%
• The regions particularly hit are London (where 16 out of 29 areas had such a reduction), Wales (4 out of 8), the North East (5 out of 11) and the North West (9 out of 19)
• Nine areas faced a total cut of 9% - 10%: Birmingham, Liverpool, Salford, Bristol, Sheffield, and the London Boroughs of Brent, Hackney, Newham and Tower Hamlets
• 74 areas have received an allocation in debt, and/or housing, and/or welfare benefits that is less than the numbers of cases started in September 08 – August 09.
• Housing in London has been particularly badly affected, with 20 out of 29 areas facing a cut in their allocation. The total housing allocation in London has been cut by just over 4,000 cases, an overall drop of 11.6%.
• Individual areas have seen cuts in their allocations in individual categories of SWL of up to 37%, compared to their recent usage figures.

• In Northumberland, the number of debt cases was cut by 37%
• In London the number of housing cases was cut by 30% in Islington, 29% in Hammersmith and Fulham, and 26% in Haringey
• Cuts of 25% were made to welfare benefits in Tower Hamlets, and housing in Brighton and Bristol.

It is very likely that providers will run out of cases in some categories in some areas during the course of the year. How the LSC and the Ministry of Justice deal with this problem will provide an important test of their commitment to social welfare law.
 
ASA’s report can be found at Updated Procurement Plans