The LAA annual report and accounts for 2018 to 2019 have been published at the same time as the DLAC report for the same period.

These are the sixth such reports since the Legal Aid Agency came into being in April 2013.

The LAA and the DLAC role were both created by the LASPO Act 2012. The reports document the work carried out under these functions.

LAA Chief Executive, Shaun McNally, said: “We are continuing to make important progress on our commitment to provide more efficient legal aid services.

“We have challenging targets for our core business and the latest ‘report and accounts’ shows our operational successes.”

Examples include:

• processing 91% of civil legal aid applications in 20 working days

• exceeding customer service and correspondence targets

• paying 99% of complete accurate bills within 20 working days

Shaun said: “We will look to build on these achievements in the coming year with the aim of reporting on an equally robust performance in 2020.”

Further information

Legal Aid Agency annual report and accounts 2018 to 2019

Director of Legal Aid Casework annual report 2018 to 2019

It follows several warnings from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that the secondary ticketing site had not done enough to overhaul the way it presents information on its website to come into compliance with UK consumer protection law.

In particular, the CMA is still of the view that:

• the warning viagogo gives to people that tickets with resale restrictions may not get them in to an event does not meet the requirements of the order
• viagogo is still using some misleading ticket availability messages, for example displaying inaccurate claims about the number of tickets left on the site
• some seat numbers are not being displayed on the website as required
• in some cases, incomplete addresses of businesses selling tickets are being displayed to consumers

viagogo and the CMA have also been in court on a separate issue in relation to a particular part of the order dealing with the use of ‘hover text’ to display the face value of tickets and the deadlines for people to claim for refunds. A hearing took place on 18 June and the CMA is now awaiting the judge’s decision.

In November 2018, the CMA secured a court order that obliged the secondary ticketing site to overhaul the way it operates its UK website and ensure that it complies with consumer protection law. The order required viagogo to implement the necessary changes, in full, by 17 January 2019.

Since then, the CMA has raised significant concerns that viagogo’s website was not compliant with certain aspects of the order, and in March 2019 announced it was preparing to take legal action for contempt of court. viagogo responded by committing to make further improvements to its website.

The CMA has now completed further checks and considered the findings of an independent review of viagogo’s compliance with the order. Many positive changes have been made, leading to important improvements to the information customers receive when considering whether to buy a ticket, and viagogo paying over £400,000 in refunds to people whose claims it had wrongly rejected.

However, these are not enough, in the CMA’s view, to comply fully with the court order. Therefore, the CMA has today notified viagogo that it will be asking a court to find it in contempt of court.

Andrea Coscelli, CMA Chief Executive Officer, said:

It is simply not good enough that viagogo is continuing to drag its heels by not complying in full with this important court order.

We secured the order on behalf of people who use these resale websites and deserve to know the facts before parting with their hard-earned money.

After the CMA repeatedly raised concerns with viagogo, and also took the time needed to give proper consideration to the findings of an independent review of viagogo’s compliance, we are very concerned that it still hasn’t done what it was ordered to do. We are now taking the next step in legal action to ask a court to find viagogo in contempt.

Notes to editors

1. Full information on the CMA’s work can be found on the case page
   
2. The letter the CMA has today written to viagogo is a letter before action. Prior to issuing proceedings, and in an attempt to avoid litigation, it is usual to send the other party a letter before action explaining the proposed claim and notifying them of the intention to issue proceedings.
3. For further information please contact the press office via press@cma.gov.uk or on 020 3738 6460

Under the plans, the Winchester junction, where the M3 interchanges with the A34, will be redesigned to create dedicated free flow lanes which will allow drivers travelling between the M3 and the A34 to travel freely between the two roads to avoid using the junction roundabout.

The roundabout itself will be redesigned into a new ‘dumbbell’ layout, which will increase capacity, improve safety and make journey times more reliable.

The plans went on show yesterday with the consultation running for eight weeks until 27 August 2019.

Highways England senior project manager Neil Andrew said:

We have worked hard on developing the plans for this busy junction since we first published the designs early last year. As well as making a real difference to peoples’ journeys, we are proposing a better, safer, and quicker way to interchange between the M3 and A34, which is a major route from the Midlands to the ports on the south coast.

More than 6,000 vehicles use this junction each hour during peak times and making the junction free flow will stop queues backing up onto the main carriageway and reduce the risk of collisions. Not only will the improvements help to separate local and long-distance traffic, we are also improving access for pedestrians, cyclists and equestrians. The plans are on show until 27 August and I encourage anyone interested to come along to one of our exhibitions or send us their feedback.

Winchester MP Steve Brine said:

This has been one of the longest-running issues over the past decade, and I have fought for years for improvements to junction 9. We have a massive opportunity to make a real difference here, so I urge all constituents to take a look and take an active part in shaping the scheme. We have to get this over the line.

Councillor Rob Humby, Deputy Leader of Hampshire County Council and Executive Member for Economy, Transport and Environment, said:

Securing Improvements for this critical junction has been a top priority for the County Council for a number of years, and we are very pleased that Highways England’s proposals are now published for consultation. This is a critical junction on the national road network as well as locally, and the planned improvements will help to separate strategic and more local traffic at junction 9, as well as improving facilities for cyclists and pedestrians.

The County Council has been pleased to work with Highways England as they have been developing their proposals and encourages everyone affected to take part in the consultation and express their views on the scheme.

The improvements to the junction include:

• creating a new free-flow link road between the M3 and A34 to remove through traffic – including thousands of freight vehicles each day – from the roundabout
• widening the M3 from two to four lanes between the south-facing roundabout slip roads and the new free-flow links with the A34
• new subways through the junction to create a continuous, segregated route for pedestrians and cyclists between the South Downs National Park, Winnall and Abbots Worthy

The M3 is the main road between London and the Solent Ports, while the A34 is the main corridor between the south coast and the Midlands. Around 110,000 vehicles use the junction every day, including over 5,500 HGVs, from Southampton and Portsmouth Docks.

Six public information events are being held in Winchester and Kings Worthy, and details on the plans are available online on the scheme web page.

General enquiries

Members of the public should contact the Highways England customer contact centre on 0300 123 5000.

Media enquiries

Journalists should contact the Highways England press office on 0844 693 1448 and use the menu to speak to the most appropriate press officer.