I am aware that FLAC have made submissions to both bodies named in the question. I will respond to those submissions directly to the bodies concerned if and when requested to do so by them.
I will say this however. Successive Ministers for Justice have stated that the present scheme would be developed when financial circumstances generally improved. I began that process last year because I was responsible for a significant increase in the grant-in-aid to the Legal Aid Board for their expenses for this year. The increase was the largest injection of taxpayers' money into the scheme since its establishment.
Furthermore, as promised by me during the course of a comprehensive debate on the scheme in this House on 20-21 February last, I have examined the position of the board in the light of the increased demand for its services due to the coming into effect of the 1989 Judicial Separation Act and these extra demands have been borne in mind in the course of the Government's deliberations on the framing of Estimates for the coming year.