Citation and commencement

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Community Legal Service (Financial) (Amendment) Regulations 2003 and shall come into force—

(a) for the purposes of regulation 4 of these Regulations, on the day section 2 of the State Pension Credit Act 2002( 2 ) (Guarantee credit) comes into force for all purposes( 3 );

(b) for all other purposes, on 7th April 2003.

Interpretation

2. In these Regulations, except where the context requires otherwise, reference to a regulation by number alone means the regulation so numbered in the Community Legal Service (Financial) Regulations 2000( 4 ).

Amendments to the Community Legal Service (Financial) Regulations 2000

3. In regulation 2(1), after the definition of “funded services”, insert—

“ “Multi-Party Action” means any action or actions, in which a number of clients have causes of action, which involve common issues of fact or law arising out of the same cause or event; ” .

4. In regulation 4(2), for “income-based jobseeker’s allowance”, substitute—

• “ , income-based jobseeker’s allowance or guarantee state pension credit (under section 1(3)(a) of the State Pension Credit Act 2002 ( 5 ) ), ” .

5. —(1) In regulation 5(2), for “£611” substitute “£621”;

(2) In regulation 5(3), for “£695” substitute “£707”;

(3) In regulation 5(5), for “£695” substitute “£707”;

(4) In regulation 5(6), for “£695” substitute “£707”.

6. In regulation 5A(4), for “£2,250” substitute “£2,288”.

7. In regulation 5B—

(a) omit paragraph (1);

(b) for paragraph (2)(b), substitute—

“ (b) the Commission considers it cost-effective to fund those services only in relation to specific issues within the Multi-Party Action. ” .

8. In regulation 38(2)(a)—

(a) for “£263” substitute “£267”;

(b) in paragraph (i), for “£259” substitute “£263”, and for “£386” substitute “£393”;

(c) in paragraph (ii), for “£387” substitute “£394”, and for “£513” substitute “£522”.

9. For regulation 38(8), substitute—

“ (8) Paragraph (9) applies where the Commission funds Legal Representation or Support Funding in proceedings which it considers to have a significant wider public interest and either:

(a) the Commission considers it cost-effective to fund those services for a specified claimant or claimants, but not for other claimants or potential claimants who might benefit from the litigation; or

(b) the Commission is funding those services in a Multi-Party Action and it considers it cost-effective to fund those services only in relation to specific issues within that action. ” .

10. In regulation 43—

(a) in paragraph (1), for “(3) and (4)” substitute “(3), (4) and (5)”;

(b) after paragraph (4), insert—

“ (5) Where Legal Help is provided as part of the family advice and information networks pilot, the amount of the statutory charge shall not exceed the sum which would have been expended by the Commission, had the Legal Help been provided otherwise than as a part of that pilot. ” .