M'lud! May I put a question to our government?

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As Rumpole would remind us, we have a right to cross -examine







There has never been a better time to put your question



Government stands charged with arguably pressing ahead with potentially perilous reforms, it's your right to hold the state to account. Government are our servants, they are answerable to us. Let's put them in the dock and put our questions! Don't forget how they need our verdict whenever they stand to be elected



This is a time when government is relentlessly pressing ahead with endless government reforms. Many of you may not know how to go about lobbying Parliament or which questions to ask if you do contact a politician, hopefully this may help you. Or perhaps, you may have a question which we haven't thought about, so by all means help others by posting it here.


Our principle concerns are the Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill and the Welfare Reform Bill, although we are concerned about many others too including those affecting the National Health Service, Education & Localism. If anyone has any suggestions on which questions you think are relevant to these bills, please do take the time to post them here so others can be helped when speaking to lobby bodies, MP's and Lords in their fight against social injustice.

Please have a read and by all means adapt the questions if you think they are relevant, or by all means suggest your own.

They are all questions which need answering.


For more information on how to lobby a lord or politician, see here (includes more questions, contact details and template letter)..

mylegal.org.uk/index.cgi?board=frontline&action=display&thread=460


Here are just some suggestions (next post is legal aid)...



Welfare Reform Bill







1. What attempts will government make to ensure that adverse media articles which demonise the disabled and over emphasise large numbers of benefit claimants as fraudulently claiming; come to a stop?

2. How is government able to predict its expenditure on the payments it will make to welfare to work contractors when large numbers of claimants have yet to be properly assessed?

3. What are government’s expected savings by 2015, and how much will it have to invest in order to achieve them; including the payments it makes to private work and fraud detection contractors?

4. Will government provide an assurance that large numbers of claimants battling the appeals system have proper access to paid benefit specialists so as to ensure appeals do not get out of hand leading to large backlogs of cases?

5. In the light of so much concern over the Employment & Support Assessments carried out by Atos healthcare, why does government not abandon these expensive contracts and spend the money on paying the claimant’s own medical specialists to assess their own patients?

6. What safeguards is Government going to put in place to monitor how private contractors operate properly; will it be independently auditing them to ensure they deliver a quality service?

7. How will the payments made to welfare to work providers be graded and at what stage will they get paid?

8. How realistic are government’s plans to get large numbers of disabled & incapacitated claimants back to work when there is already high unemployment with able bodied individuals being unable to find work?

9. What steps has government taken to ensure that employers act responsibly when recruiting disabled people and make the appropriate adaptations in the workplace to ensure they are treated without discrimination?

10. Can government provide an assurance that the method of assessing claimants for Personal Independence Payment is not the same as it has been for the problematic Employment & Support Allowance?

11. What steps will government take to ensure the use of private fraud detection agencies does not become an invasion on the liberty of an individual?

12. How long does government think it will take before it receives a monetary return on its investment in welfare reform?

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Legal Aid, Sentencing & Punishment of Offenders Bill







1. With current benefit appeals amounting to 418,000 for 2010/2011 has Government fully considered the implications of an increase in the number of appeals which will arise out of its welfare reforms?


2. ESA is the first appeal on the welfare reform ladder, with many more to come as they reform benefits including 3.1 million people on disability living allowance the appeal numbers could quite easily double. If this should happen has Government fully considered how the reduction in the provision of legal advice will contribute to an increase in the number of appeals by appellants who act as litigant in person?


3. Has Government considered the true cost of the number of appeals which will arise out of welfare reforms?

The Tribunals Service quantified this at £279 per case for a ‘non-complicated’ appeal in 2008/2009. The cost today would be higher, particularly in cases which are more complicated and when added to the DWP’s administration costs, could easily amount to £500 per case. Legal aid often prevents cases without merit proceeding to appeal because the appellant will more readily accept the advice of an experienced professional and decide not to proceed with their case. With all the potential for over 900,000 appeals a year at a cost of £500 per appeal the cost of legal aid at £150 per case (from October 2011) represents a significant saving leading to substantial reductions in State expenditure.


4. Legal Action Group research has shown that reductions in funding across the country average 69% which would severely restrict the availability of social welfare advice at a time when Government is embarking on potentially chaotic reform. Facing the increased likelihood of a downturn in the economy and a growth in unemployment, does Government agree that this is completely the wrong time to be taking away essential advice?

The implication for advice agencies is that they are already facing a legal aid fee reduction of 10% in October 2011 and from October 2012 will no longer be able to deal with any welfare benefit enquiries under the legal aid scheme.

Welfare reforms, as far as the Universal Credit is concerned, will involve formally revising around 18 million separate claims. In total the number of benefit claims to be reviewed as part of welfare reforms could exceed 30 million separate statute decisions carried out by under-resourced departments with IT systems which may not work smoothly.

Surely Government sees the sense in allowing claimants to access proper advice?


5. Does Government appreciate that with Kenneth Clarke’s announcement in his Ministry of Justice ‘growth report’, the legal services market generated income of £23.1 billion per year in 2009. Surely out of this, some money can be diverted to the provision of essential social welfare advice?

The Minister for Justice comments that this represents a substantial boost to the UK economy and is an area for growth which at 2009 figures contributed to 1.8 of gross domestic product. By comparison social welfare law in its most basic form costs the state around £100 million a year which is being cut back to £31 million or thereabouts. It is essential to maintain essential front line services when we are potentially facing chaotic reforms to the justice system, NHS, education & the welfare system. There is growth generation which should provide for the provision of statutory funded advice services.

The legal aid reforms leave us with the crumbs on the plate; these reductions in funds leave us with an amount which is wholly insufficient and will not be able to provide a service which will continue to remain in demand.

Will Government ensure statutory funding of advice services remains a priority?