Legal Services Amendment Bill
This bill stops the government from paying for a specific type of report used in court sentencing. When someone is being sentenced for a crime, they can currently bring people to speak on their behalf about their background and family support. If the person couldn't afford a lawyer, the government sometimes also paid for these reports. This bill ends that government funding. It comes into force 14 days after being signed into law, but reports already approved before that date can still be paid for.
What this affects
Tap a topic to see how this bill touches it — with the parts of the text it’s based on.
People who can't afford legal costs will no longer be able to get government money to pay for reports that speak to their background and family support at their sentencing hearing.
the Legal Services Commissioner must decline any claim for payment of legal aid to the extent to which it is for a disbursement incurred in relation to a report or statement (whether oral or written) of a person called by an offender under section 27 of the Sentencing Act 2002
In 2017, there were 9 section 27 reports funded by legal aid and the Public Defence Service, costing a total of $17,164. In 2022, there were 2,429 section 27 reports at a cost of $6.45 million.
Progress through Parliament
Have your say
Submissions open once a bill reaches the select committee stage. In the meantime, you can write to your local MP about it.
Write to your MPBill text sourced from legislation.govt.nz (Parliamentary Counsel Office). Arapono’s summary and breakdown are drafted with AI grounded in that official text and reviewed by an Arapono editor for accuracy and neutrality before publishing. Arapono is non-partisan and takes no position on this bill.