2000 No. 80

LEGAL AID AND ADVICE

Legal Advice and Assistance (Financial Conditions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000

To be laid before Parliament

Made

Coming into operation

The Lord Chancellor, in exercise of the powers conferred by Articles 3(2), 7(3), 22 and 27 of the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 19811 and now vested in him 2, hereby makes the following Regulations:—

Citation, commencement and interpretation1

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Legal Advice and Assistance (Financial Conditions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2000 and shall come into operation on 10th April 2000.

2

In these regulations, “the Order” means the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981.

Revocation2

The Legal Advice and Assistance (Financial Conditions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 19993 are hereby revoked.

Persons eligible for advice and assistance3

For the weekly sum of “£178” specified in Article 3(1) of the Order4 there shall be substituted the weekly sum of “£180”.

Contributions from persons receiving advice and assistance4

For the weekly sum of “£75” specified in Article 7(2) of the Order5 there shall be substituted the weekly sum of “£76”.

Irvine of Lairg, C

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations amend the Legal Aid, Advice and Assistance (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 so as to:

a

increase the upper income limit to make legal advice and assistance available to those with disposable income of not more than £180 a week (instead of £178) (Regulation 3);

b

increase the lower income limit below which legal advice and assistance is available without payment of a contribution to £76 a week (instead of £75) (Regulation 4).

No changes are made to the capital limits.