The Scottish Legal Aid Board has expressed concern about a drop in the number of applications for help in civil cases.

In its annual report, the board said expenditure on aid in 1999/2000 had fallen to �127m, down �11m on the previous year.

Criminal case applications rose fractionally during the past year, up by 1% to 64,818. But the number of requests for civil aid dropped by 3.3% to 23,106.

Since 1993 there has been a 46% drop in the number of grants to help people pursue civil cases.

Board chairwoman Jean Couper said: "We are concerned by this trend and want to establish the reasons for it.

"In particular, we would like to find out whether it relates to financial eligibility and to the amount of contributions an assisted person may have to pay."

Repayment period

The board will be carrying out research in the coming year into the possible reasons for the drop.

It has acknowledged that for many applicants, repaying their contributions over a 10-month period is difficult.

During a two-year pilot project, in which people were allowed to repay over a longer period, there was a 14% increase in take-up.

Mrs Couper said the board was pleased that the Scottish Executive had agreed to extend the period of repayment to either 15 or 20 months. This was expected to lead to a rise in applications.

From October of this year, the European Convention on Human Rights will apply to the board's work and she admitted this could have "a major effect".

She predicted: "Undoubtedly there will be challenges to board decisions and policies."

Chief executive Lindsay Montgomery said it was very difficult to estimate what additional costs might be.