LEGAL AID IN CONTEMPT PROCEEDINGS

In an earlier post I  set out the judgment of the Court of Appeal in Brown -v- London Borough of Haringey [2015] EWCA Civ 483 about the availability of legal aid in committal proceedings. This included the passage

” The question of the availability of legal aid in such proceedings needs to be clear to lawyer and layman alike. It is not. The legislation is disgracefully complex”

Today I had an email from someone faced with committal proceedings.  They have been around 20 firms seeking legal aid for committal proceedings. The LAA keeps telling the solicitors that legal aid is not available. So the litigant will have to go to court (and possibly to prison) whilst unrepresented.

Anyone have any views as to why the LAA are informing solicitors of this? Have the Regulations been changed since the Brown decision?