The Legal Aid (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013

• Citation: S.I. 2013/457
• Sections: 4

Section 1 Citation and commencement

These Regulations may be cited as the Legal Aid (Disclosure of Information) Regulations 2013 and come into force on 1st April 2013.

Section 2 Interpretation

In these Regulations—

“ the Act ” means the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012; and

“criminal legal aid” means advice, assistance and representation made available under sections 13, 15 and 16 of the Act.

Section 3 Position of providers

(1) The relationship between a provider and a legally aided person, and any privilege arising out of that relationship, does not preclude the provider from disclosing relevant information to the Lord Chancellor or the Director for the purposes of enabling or assisting them to carry out their functions under Part 1 of the Act.

(2) For the purposes of this regulation—

“legally aided person” means an individual or a legal person to whom civil legal services or criminal legal aid have been made available under Part 1 of the Act;

“provider” means a person with whom the Lord Chancellor has made an arrangement under section 2(1) of the Act (arrangements) for the provision of civil legal services or criminal legal aid under Part 1 of the Act; and

“relevant information” means information relating to a legally aided person or to the civil legal services or criminal legal aid which have been made available to that person.

Section 4 Disclosure of information

The Director and Lord Chancellor must not disclose any information for the purposes of the investigation or prosecution of an offence (or a suspected offence) under the law of England and Wales or any other jurisdiction which—

(a) relates to the defence of an individual or a legal person who has made an application for criminal legal aid (whether or not a determination is made in their favour); and

(b) may be used for the purposes of the prosecution of that individual or legal person in that case.