Barnett Tim: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Barnett Tim: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:607;Page:4189] 
1. TIM BARNETT (NZ Labour—Christchurch Central) 
 to the  
Minister of Justice 
: What plans does he have to pilot publicly provided legal aid services? 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Justice) 
: 
 A publicly provided legal aid service will commence early next year to provide criminal legal aid services in the Auckland and Manukau courts. Under the pilot which was foreshadowed under the Legal Services Act up to a third of criminal legal aid services in these courts could be provided by public lawyers working alongside private lawyers. The pilot as indicated in the Legal Services Act will be properly evaluated. 
Tim Barnett 
: What are the benefits of having a publicly provided service alongside private providers? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Most overseas jurisdictions with legal aid regimes similar to New Zealand’s including Canada Australia England and Wales have a mixture of publicly and privately provided legal aid services. Research indicates that this is in fact the mixture that produces the best results. In particular a mixed system creates the incentives for each system to improve the quality and consistency of representation and ensures best value for the taxpayers’ money. 
Richard Worth 
: If the Minister is truly concerned about the provision of good and strong legal aid why has he overlooked or ignored the proposal that would involve the Legal Services Agency calling for tenders from both law firms and barrister groups for legal services work on a bulk basis with a consequent improvement in the quality of legal services provided? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Indeed I have foreshadowed just that. Again in the Legal Services Act that is another option that the Legal Services Agency will be looking at and will implement in due course. However we want to do these things one at a time so that the Legal Services Agency is able properly to implement each of the pilot schemes that it has in mind. 
Stephen Franks 
: What rules or other steps will the Minister take to ensure that this new service is not simply on top of existing services and that it does not simply fund endless appeals and other cases without merit? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: The same set of rules will apply in terms of eligibility for legal aid for publicly provided services as for privately provided services. What having a public system can do of course is address some of the concerns that have been expressed about the cost of legal aid. The cost and quality of private services can appropriately be measured against the public sector provider. Equally the private sector provider under a mixed system ensures there is proper competition with the public sector and we can measure one system against the other. 
Dail Jones 
: What steps will be taken to ensure that the public providers have adequate qualifications and experience as opposed to the private providers? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: It is very important that the public sector providers do have the appropriate qualifications and experience. For that reason the widest range of legal aid work will be available to public lawyers from the District Court to the Court of Appeal including duty solicitor schemes. That way we can get a mixture of senior and more junior staff and the junior staff of course can be mentored by the senior staff. That is also a career structure within the public sector that will attract the right sort of people.