What evaluation it has made of (a) any savings to the civil legal aid budget and (b) other costs such as shrieval time as a result of the p…

No formal or systematic evaluationhas been made of any savings to the civil legal aid or other justice budgets asa result of the provision of mediation services. Previous attempts to do so in familycases have been unsuccessful due to the difficulties in ensuring valid comparisonsbetween cases where mediation has taken place and others where it has not. Mediationmay reduce costs in some cases where it is successful, but may increase the costof cases where not successful. The take up of mediation in non-family cases is verylow and unlikely to have had any measurable impact on the legal aid budget. Researchis being developed with the aim of evaluating the effectiveness of mediation inScotland.