Legal Services Commission

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is an executive non-departmental public body that is responsible for legal aid in England and Wales. It is sponsored by the Department for Constitutional Affairs and its work is overseen by an independent board of commissioners.

The LSC was estabilished under the Access to Justice Act 1999 and replaced the Legal Aid Board in 2000.

The LSC is responsible for the development and administration of two schemes: the Community Legal Service (CLS) and the Criminal Defence Service (CDS).

The CLS is an initiative that aims to improve the public’s access to quality information and help for their civil legal problems, such as family, debt and housing. Free legal advice is available to people who cannot afford to pay for legal help. This is supplied through solicitors’ and advice agencies that are quality assured through the LSC’s Quality Mark scheme.

The CDS is a scheme that provides free legal advice and representation for people facing criminal charges who are unable to pay for legal help. This is supplied through criminal solicitors’ offices that are quality assured through the Specialist Quality Mark (SQM) scheme.

The LSC purchases around £2 billion of legal services annually for its clients. These services provide legal advice, assistance and representation to over 2 million people each year. The organisation cites its aims as to protect the fundamental rights of the individual and to address the problems that contribute to the social exclusion of its clients. (LSC Corporate Plan 2005)

The Head of Direct Services for the LSC is John Sirodcar.