Lord Darling of Roulanish

Former Labour Peer

Legal Aid

There have been votes in Parliament on the subject of eligibility for legal aid. Matters which have been voted on include means testing, if aid should be generally restricted to those residing in the UK, and which legal services should be funded by legal aid.

Photo: Alba Palacios

Lord Darling of Roulanish almost always voted against restricting the scope of legal aid

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TheyWorkForYou has calculated this MP’s stance based on votes we have grouped on this topic. Learn more.

You can browse the source data on PublicWhip.org.uk. We are in the process of moving away from using the PublicWhip and there may be some discrepancies between the two sites.

Major votes

  • On 9 Jul 2014: Lord Darling of Roulanish was absent for a vote on Draft Civil Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2014 — Residence Test for Legal Aid Eligibility Show vote
  • On 5 Dec 2012: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted not to extend legal aid to certain welfare appeals and certain international child benefit recovery cases. Show vote
  • On 17 Apr 2012: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to require the Lord Chancellor to ensure that, subject to resources, individuals have access to legal services that effectively meet their needs. Show vote
  • On 17 Apr 2012: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to make legal aid available in respect of social welfare decisions. Show vote
  • On 17 Apr 2012: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to make legal aid available to children in a wider range of cases. Show vote
  • On 2 Nov 2011: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to make legal aid available to cover the entirety of assistance required where people are deemed to have complex, interconnected needs, some of which do not usually attract aid. Show vote
  • On 2 Nov 2011: Lord Darling of Roulanish was absent for a vote on Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill — Third Reading Show vote
  • On 31 Oct 2011: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to make legal aid available in clinical negligence cases. Show vote
  • On 29 Jun 2011: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted against reforming reform legal aid, against removing it from some types of cases, against sentencing and remand reforms and not to introduce new offences relating to threatening with a weapon. Show vote

Minor votes

  • On 22 Jan 2014: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted against legal aid only being provided in cases assessed to have a greater than "borderline" chance of success. Show vote
  • On 5 Dec 2012: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted against proposed criteria for determining if legal aid is to be awarded in particular circumstances. Show vote
  • On 31 Oct 2011: Lord Darling of Roulanish voted to explicitly include threats plus financial and emotional abuse in the definition of domestic abuse used in relation to the award of civil legal aid to domestic abuse victims. Show vote

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