Part IILegal Aid Board and Legal Aid

5Duties of the Board

(1)The Board shall, from time to time, publish information as to the discharge of its functions in relation to advice, assistance and representation including the forms and procedures and other matters connected therewith.

(2)The Board shall, from time to time, furnish to the Lord Chancellor such information as he may require relating to its property and to the discharge or proposed discharge of its functions.

(3)It shall be the duty of the Board to provide to the Lord Chancellor, as soon as possible after 31st March in each year, a report on the discharge of its functions during the preceding twelve months.

(4)The Board shall deal in any report under subsection (3) above with such matters as the Lord Chancellor may from time to time direct.

(5)The Board shall have regard, in discharging its functions, to such guidance as may from time to time be given by the Lord Chancellor.

(6)Guidance under subsection (5) above shall not relate to the consideration or disposal, in particular cases, of—

(a)applications for advice, assistance or representation;

(b)supplementary or incidental applications or requests to the Board in connection with any case where advice, assistance or representation has been made available.

(7)For the purposes of subsection (2) above the Board shall permit any person authorised by the Lord Chancellor for the purpose to inspect and make copies of any accounts or documents of the Board and shall furnish such explanations of them as that person or the Lord Chancellor may require.