With thanks to James Stark at Garden Court North for alerting me to this. From Monday (27.7.15) there is an important amendment to the Legal Aid merits test in S.I. 2015/1571.
In short, “borderline” and “poor” cases are back in scope if it is necessary to prevent a breach of a persons Convention rights or EU rights. “Poor” is redefined as “more than 20% chance of success, but less than 50%”. A new category of case (which cannot be funded) is also created, the “very poor” case.
So, presumably, all Art.8 possession defences are now back within scope, even if the underlying merits are poor?