Prisoners still using taxpayers’ cash for legal aid – A life of crime should not pay

Prisoners are still using hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' cash to raise legal proceedings.

John Lamont MSP, Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Justice, said:

"A culture has emerged where the Scottish taxpayer is seen as a cash cow by some of the most undeserving people.

"Even if we weren't living in unprecedentedly difficult economic times it would be unacceptable.

"In addition to these figures, prisoners have used ECHR to mount a costly fight for the right to vote and convicts at Saughton launched legal action for compensation because they claim being handcuffed breaches their human rights. Just last year we heard reports of prisoners serving sentences in Scottish jails being given more than £4million of taxpayers' money just to make compensation claims in the past five years.

"Ever since ECHR was incorporated into Scots' Law it has been a disaster. Under Labour and now the soft-touch SNP, the freedom of the accused became more important than the protection of the public.

"It is not acceptable that even more money will be paid to convicted criminals, rather than being spent fighting Labour's recession. A life of crime should not pay."

Below is the written parliamentary answer detailing the amounts

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-35575 by Kenny MacAskill on 26 August 2010, what the estimated is cost of (a) legal aid for those prisoners who have raised proceedings, (b) defending the proceedings and (c) all payments made to successful litigants.

(S3W-35910)

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked John Ewing, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service (SPS), to respond. His response is as follows:

(a) The total net cost on the legal aid fund legal aid for those prisoners who have raised proceedings is £376,014. This cost includes the payment of some final accounts. A large part of this cost is made up of cases where the case has not been concluded and the solicitor has been paid on account. These cases are where an action has been raised and sisted whilst a few test cases are pursued. Depending on the outcome of the test cases much of this cost may end up being paid under judicial expenses and therefore will not be a cost on the legal aid fund.

(b) The estimated cost of defending the proceedings since May 2007 can only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The Scottish Government Legal Directorate represents the Scottish ministers in most of the actions raised since May 2007. As in-house solicitors, their costs are not charged directly to SPS. SPS records from April 2008 show the cost for defending proceedings has been £217,067. These are largely counsel costs. In addition each case is likely to have incurred the following court costs:

Notification of Intention to Defend: approximately £80

Motion to sist: approximately £40

This would give an additional indicative cost of approximately £249,600 for the 2,080 actions.

(c) The cost of payment in compensation to successful litigants to September 2010 is £297,500.

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