LSC accounts qualified for the fourth year running
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) has had its accounts qualified for the fourth year running. The National Audit Office (NAO) noted that the LSC paid excessive fees of more than £20m to legal aid lawyers, while £15m went to people who were not eligible for help.
The LSC received praise for reducing irregular payments by 28%. However, excessive and invalid claims relating to Crown Court cases rose to £4.5m.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, says that, while the LSC has made “significant progress”, the “error rate, particularly in relation to legal aid providers, is still high”.
LSC chief executive, Matthew Coats, says: “We have undertaken a significant amount of work to analyse the causes of errors across all legal aid schemes and have taken remedial action, where appropriate. We remain committed to continuing to make further improvements to our financial and operational control, both to reduce errors further and recover inaccurate payments.”
