2.1This chapter briefly sets out how the legal aid scheme was developed, and how the new scheme was arrived at. It also sets out the legislative framework that underpins legal aid. For more detailed information on the history of legal aid and on the passage of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012, see the LAG publications Austerity Justice and The Justice Gap.1Steve Hynes, Austerity Justice, Legal Action Group, 2012; Jon Robins and Steve Hynes, The Justice Gap: whatever happened to legal aid, Legal Action Group, 2009.