Legal Aid Steering Group key documents

Summary

The request sought key documents for the Legal Aid Steering Group, including terms of reference and implementation plans. The Treasury disclosed the Terms of Reference document but withheld other requested items, citing partial exemptions.

Key Facts

• The Legal Aid Steering Group is chaired by Dr Alex Allinson MHK, the Minister for the Treasury Department.
• The group's primary purpose is to implement recommendations from the late Attorney General John Quinn's review of Legal Aid.
• Steering Group meetings are scheduled to occur twice quarterly with a quorum of 50% of members.
• The group is responsible for drafting and implementing a new Legal Aid Act and Regulations.
• Minutes of the Steering Group are to be published with necessary redactions.

Data Disclosed

• 2025-10-06
• 2025-11-26
• 20
• 2
• 1986
• 50%
• 5 working days
• one hour

Original Request

Please supply Legal Aid Steering Group key documents (1) terms of reference and (2) implementation plan (3) legal aid case management system project definition (4) Legal Aid Bill 2025 drafting instructions.

Data Tables (5)

Full Response Text

GREEN Page 1 LEGAL AID Steering Group TERMS OF REFERENCE Part 1

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Page 2 1. CONSTITUTION

The Steering Group is comprised of the following members:

Member

Role Responsibility Dr Alex Allinson MHK Chair of Steering Group Minister for the Treasury Department [note 1] Facilitator of the Legal Aid Steering Group A Political member of Treasury Deputy Chair of Steering Group Political Member for the Treasury Department
Alexander Armstrong

Representative of Isle of Man Courts and Tribunals Seek input from Isle of Man Courts and Tribunals Update Isle of Man Courts and Tribunals [Note 2] Rebecca Cubbon Alternative Representative for Isle of Man Courts and Tribunals Helen Helfrich Representative of Attorney General’s Chambers Seek input from the Attorney General’s Chambers Update the Attorney General’s Chambers

Nicola Pitts Deputy Representative of Attorney General’s Chambers David Trace Representative of Legal Aid Committee Seek input from the Legal Aid Committee Update the Legal Aid Committee [note 3] Victoria Unsworth Representative of The Isle of Man Law Society
Seek input from the Isle of Man Law Society Update the Isle of Man Law Society [note 3] Malgorzata Simpson Critical Friend Independent member of the public [note 3] Michele Mountjoy Accountable Executive – accountable for programme delivery Lead for reporting to Treasury Director Social Security Division Oversight of Legal Aid Administration within Social Security Martina Jay Legal Aid Certifying Officer [Note 4] Rebecca Evans Head of Legal Aid
Project Manager Delegated financial powers for Legal Aid from Chief Financial Officer

The Steering group is supported by:

Carrie Yates HEO Legal Aid Operational Manager Legal Aid Office Administrative Support

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Page 3 Notes: 1) Day to day operational powers delegated to the Chief Financial Officer. 2) The Isle of Man Legal Aid Act confers authority to authorise Criminal Legal Aid Certificates to the IOM Courts and Tribunals, which also manages Criminal Legal Aid Administration (e.g. contributions). 3) Constructive independent who provides candid challenge and critique in accordance to the Memorandum of Understanding to be signed.
The representatives of the Isle of Man Law Society and the Legal Aid Committee will also sign a Memorandum of Understanding.
4) The Legal Aid Certifying Officer is a Statutory post: a) The post holder is to discharge functions conferred upon them by the Legal Aid Act 1986 and Regulations thereunder; b) Has responsibility to approve disbursements under Criminal Legal Aid Certificates;
c) Also there is a Deputy Legal Aid Certifying Officer with exact powers (currently occupied by an Interim Deputy Legal Aid Certifying Officer operating in a backup role); d) The Legal Aid Committee appoints both the Legal Aid Certifying Officer and the Deputy Legal Aid Certifying Officer.

1. SUMMARY PURPOSE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE STEERING GROUP

1) Implement the recommendations of the late Attorney General John Quinn’s review of Legal Aid, as accepted and supported by the Legal Aid Committee, and/or provide recommendations to the Council of Ministers for significant Policy change; 2) Support the creation of an implementation plan to deliver the same, including (but not exclusively) workstreams to deliver: a) Financial responsibility; b) Develop alternative or review financial assessment criteria; c) Staffing: i. Merge the administration functions and locations of Civil Legal Aid and Criminal Legal Aid; ii. Review the Deputy Legal Aid Certifying Officer’s role; d) Drafting and implementation of the new Legal Aid Act and Regulations thereunder; 3) Own any actions arising from that plan and implement these within their area(s) of representation; 4) Produce minutes and actions following each meeting; 5) Decide upon and provide regular reports to overseeing bodies and other stakeholders. 6) Minutes of the Steering Group are to be published with necessary redactions.

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Page 4 3. MEETING GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE/DECISION MAKING

Decisions are to be made by a quorum of members within the remit of the Steering Group responsibilities above. The quorum is to be 50% of members to include the Chair and/or Deputy Chair.

Decisions which impact upon legislation and/or regulations will be proposed as supported through the legislative drafters of the Attorney General’s Office and routed to the Council of Ministers.

1. MEETING GOVERNANCE

Meetings will be twice quarterly. Meetings will only be held when at least one of the Chair or Deputy Chair is in attendance. The meeting is intended to last one hour and by exception may be extended if the agenda and coverage requires. Additionally, the Chairman or Deputy Chairman may at any time convene an extraordinary meeting.

Papers will be issued at least 5 working days prior to the meeting. Papers submitted after this date will only be accepted in exceptional and urgent matters.

Meetings will operate on an exception basis – it will therefore be assumed that attendees have read the papers prior to the meeting.

Actions will be issued following each meeting detailing only notable minutes and actions taken.

Standing agenda items for the Steering Group are:

i. Chair’s confirmation of previous meeting’s minutes/actions; ii. Review of previous actions and updates; iii. Decision making and discussion as required; iv. Any other business.

Actions and minutes are to be issued within 10 working days of the meeting.

1. REPORTING

The Steering Group will report to (the Foundation Steering Group Meeting will confirm reportage along with whom is responsible for reporting):

a) The Board of the Treasury; b) The Council of Ministers; c) The Justice Committee; d) The Minister for Justice and Home Affairs.

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Page 5 6. CONFIDENTIALITY AND INFORMATION SHARING

It is the responsibility of all Steering Group members to respect the information sharing levels of all information offered within the Steering Group meetings. Any information (save “public” information as defined in Appendix A) shared within Steering Group meetings is confidential and so shared in circumstances of confidence.

Documents circulated to Steering Group members will be bound by the Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) as set out in Appendix A of this document.

It is the responsibility of the representative sharing the information to specify its sharing level.

1. REVIEW/AMENDMENT OF TERMS OF REFERENCE

Terms of Reference will be version controlled and reviewed annually as required.

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Page 6

APPENDIX A

Traffic Light Protocol (TLP) sharing levels: • RED – Non-disclosable, restricted to representatives present at the meeting (and named individuals) and not to be recorded in the minutes or in any other notes. Representatives must not disseminate the information outside the relevant information exchange.

• AMBER – Limited disclosure and restricted to members of the working group and those within their organisations, whether employees, consultants or contractors working in the organisation who have a need to know in order to take action.

• GREEN – Information can be shared with other organisations or bodies in the network security, information assurance or critical national infrastructure community at large, but not published or posted on the web, or otherwise made public. Papers shared outside the network will be issued with password protection or via secure email.

• WHITE – Unlimited/Public. May be distributed freely, without restriction, in accordance with the laws of the relevant jurisdiction.

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Page 7

Version Control

Version Date Change 0.1 28.03.2024 Draft version for review (IJ) 0.2 24.04.2024 Draft version (0.1) updated following Steering Group Foundation meeting with their recommended changes. For circulation and approval. 0.3 01.05.2024 Draft version (0.2) updated for circulation and approval. 1.0 24.05.2024 Final version approved by Legal Aid Steering Group 1.1 04.11.2024 Replacement of Project Lead Christine Clucas with Rebecca Evans 1.2 27.11.2024 Replacement of Deputy Chair Dr Haywood with “A political member of Treasury” Additional Administrator, . 1.3 16.01.2025 Amendment to include change of staff in Legal Aid support

s.25 LAW DRAFTING INSTRUCTIONS Submitted by Rebecca Evans & Martina Jay The Treasury Social Security Division Legal Aid Date submitted Instructing Officer Telephone 687068 Rebecca Evans email Rebecca.evans3@gov.im LST officer Telephone Has there been a consultation? Yes/No If yes, date consultation ends/ended Do the instructions incorporate changes required as a result of the consultation responses? If not, please explain.
DOCUMENTS ATTACHED: Please explain these documents or why any documents are not included Ministerial decision Yes Reports or propositions laid before Tynwald Yes Consultation document Yes/No Response to consultation Yes/No All legal and technical advice relied upon in preparation of the instructions from AGC (Note: all legal advice provided by lawyers in the private sector must also be shared with AGC advisory team and drafters). No All European or other international documents that the proposed legislation is intended to implement. No Any other documents? Other information: Explain relevance List existing legislative provisions that may be of relevance (No need to provide copies of UK legislation. Primary legislation is the Legal Aid Act 1986 Secondary legislation and related orders below. • Civil Legal Aid Order 2008 • Criminal Legal Aid Regulations 1993 • Duty Advocate (Police Custody) Scheme 1998 • Duty Advocate Scheme 1997 Part 4 • Legal Advice and Assistance Regulations 1997 • Legal Aid (Financial Resources) Regulations 1997 • Legal Aid (Panel of Advocates) Regulations 1998 • Legal Aid Act 1986 (Appointed Day) (No. 1) Order 1986 • Legal Aid Act 1986 (Appointed Day) (No. 2) Order 1986 • Legal Aid Remuneration Order 2014

Set out the nature of the project and its likely scale (ie is it stand - alone, or part of a series of projects that are to work and/or be brought into force together?).

This new Act is the most important part of a major project being undertaken by Legal Aid following the Legal Aid Review carried out by the late HM Attorney General Mr John Quinn, who provided a set of recommendations following a considerable consultation with stakeholders and covering provision of legal aid for criminal and civil proceedings.

Secondary legislation will be required as well as implementation of technical solutions and reviews of internal policies and procedures in order to implement all accepted recommendations.
Set out any known timetable or deadline that is likely to apply to the project as a whole. The Bill and secondary Regulations should be passed during this administration.

Other non-statutory project work (such as new IT systems) will continue alongside the legislative work.

s.34

Freedom of Information
Seyrsnys Fysseree

The Treasury Government Office,
Douglas Isle of Man, IM1 3PU

Telephone: (01624) 685605 Email: FOI.Treasury@gov.im

Government Website: www.gov.im

Our ref: 4978925 26 November 2025

Dear ###,

We write further to your request, received 6 October 2025 and amended 10 November 2025, which states:

"Please supply Legal Aid Steering Group key documents (1) terms of reference and (2) implementation plan (3) legal aid case management system project definition (4) Legal Aid Bill 2025 drafting instructions."

Our response to your request is as follows:

Please accept our apologies for the delay in processing your request, as a result of extending the processing period, whilst we considered whether qualified exemptions to disclosure apply.

Attached to this response letter is appendix 1, which is the information being disclosed to you in response to your request. This includes some of the information in relation to parts 1 (terms of reference) and part 4 (Legal Aid drafting instructions) of your request. The remainder of the information which is subject to disclosure is exempt from disclosure under sections 25 and 34 of the Act.

This is because some information in part 1 contains personal information, therefore section 25 of the Act applies. In addition to this all of the information in parts 2 and 3, and some of the information in part 4 of your request is held by a Government Department and it relates to the formulation of government policy, therefore section 34 of the Act applies. Details of how the exemptions have been applied are described below.

s.25 Absolutely exempt personal information While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance we are unable to provide some of the information you have requested because it is absolutely exempt under section 25(2)(b)(i) of the Act (absolutely exempt personal information).

The reasons why that exemption applies are that:

• The Treasury is satisfied that the information amounts to personal data of which you are not the data subject; and

• The Treasury is satisfied that disclosure of the information would contravene one of the data protection principles as set out at Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulation as it applies in the Isle of Man pursuant to the Data Protection (Application of GDPR) Order 2018, namely that the Treasury can only disclose the information where it would be fair, lawful and meet one of the conditions for lawful processing in Article 6 [or if you are dealing with sensitive personal data “and one of the conditions in Article 9 of the GDPR and Schedule 2 of the Implementing Regulations is met”] and in this case, none of those conditions have been met.
s.34 Formulation of policy
The Legal Aid Steering Group has been formed to implement the recommendations of the late Attorney General John Quinn’s review of Legal Aid on the Isle of Man, which will include providing recommendations to the Council of Ministers for significant policy change.

The information involving the implementation plan, the case management system project definition and drafting instructions all relate to the formulation of government policy. The policy is still in the formulation stage and has not progressed through the

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