Legal Aid Bill: Lords report stage day five

• Watch the debate on Parliament TV from 3.30pm
• Read the Lords Hansard report

Discussions will start with amendments to Clause 54 of the bill which considers rules against referral fees in respect of claims for personal injury and death. Following this members will debate how these referral fees are regulated with a change to Clause 57.

It is thought that Lords will suggest a new clause after Clause 58 in Amendment 150 which focuses on 'costs in civil cases for low value personal injury claims'. A 10 per cent 'uplift' in general damages will be proposed in Amendment 151ZA.

• Read Lords' suggested changes in the fifth marshalled list of amendments.

Report stage so far

• Report stage day four: Wednesday 14 March
• Report stage day three: Monday 12 March
• Report stage day two: Wednesday 7 March
• Report stage day one: Monday 5 March

The last stage: Committee stage

The 10-day committee stage (last stage) concluded on Wednesday 15 February.

• Lords changes to be moved at report stage: Latest marshalled list

What is report stage?

Report stage in the chamber gives all members of the Lords further opportunity to consider all amendments (proposals for change) to a bill. It usually starts at least 14 days after committee stage. It can be spread over several days (but usually fewer days than at committee stage).

Detailed line by line examination of the separate parts (clauses and schedules) of a bill takes place during report stage. Voting can take place and any member can take part.

• Passage of a bill: report stage

Before report stage takes place

• The day before report stage starts, amendments are published in a Marshalled List – in which all the amendments are placed in order.
• On the day, amendments on related subjects are grouped together and a list (“groupings of amendments”) is published.

The bill's progress so far

• Catch up on final day of committee stage
• Catch up on committee stage day nine
• Catch up on committee stage day eight
• Catch up on committee stage day seven
• Catch up on committee stage day six
• Catch up on committee stage day five
• Catch up on committee stage day four
• Catch up on committee stage day three
• Catch up on committee stage day two
• Catch up on committee stage day one

The previous stage of this bill to be completed in the Lords was the second reading, which took place on 21 November 2011.

What is the committee stage?

During committee stage, detailed line-by-line examination of separate clauses and schedules of the bill takes place. Any member of the Lords can take part. It can last for one or two days to eight or more. This stage usually starts no fewer than two weeks after the second reading.

Some key areas of the bill:

• The bill takes certain types of case out of scope for legal aid funding and provides that cases would not be eligible for funding unless specified in the bill.
• It abolishes the Legal Services Commission.
• It makes various provisions in respect of civil litigation funding and costs, taking forward the recommendations of the Jackson Review.
• It makes changes to sentencing provisions, giving courts an express duty (rather than the current power) to consider making compensation orders where victims have suffered harm or loss, reducing the detailed requirements on courts when they give reasons for a sentence, allowing courts to suspend sentences of up to two years rather than 12 months and amending the court’s power to suspend a prison sentence.
• It introduces new powers to allow curfews to be imposed for more hours in the day and for up to 12 months rather than the current six.

Further information

• Follow the passage of a bill through the House of Lords
• Attend debates and meetings

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