asked the Attorney-General if he will introduce legal aid for all applicants appearing before tribunals concerned with social welfare benefits.

The extension of legal aid to further tribunals will be considered in the light of research into the need for legal assistance in that field.

Even in advance of the research, would not the Attorney-General agree that those who appear before these tribunals are confronted by a mass of regulations at least as confusing as those which confront them in the civil courts, and they are no better able to make provision for this? How would the right hon. and learned Gentleman distinguish between the two situations?

As the hon. Gentleman appreciates, it was in 1968 that the Legal Aid Advisory Committee recommended that legal aid should not be extended save to the lands tribunal. The committee has expressed the hope that there will be further research, and there is now the possibility of this being done through the Nuffield Foundation, which has allocated £150,000 for this purpose. In those circumstances, I think that we should await the results of that inquiry.

Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman realise that substantial financial sums may be involved in these proceedings, that very often extremely difficult legal issues arise in them, and that frequently there is a need to cross-examine expert witnesses? Will he consider sympathetically the extension of legal aid to National Insurance Tribunals?

I appreciate that there are often difficulties. As the right hon. and learned Gentleman said, difficult legal points may arise. The Legal Aid Advisory Committee and the Council on Tribunals have called for further research and, as there is a body prepared to do it, I think that it would be right to await the results of that research.