An MP replied and its good stuff! Suggest everyone has a read :) Dear Georgie Thank you for your email about the cuts to legal aid which have taken place under the Coalition. As you may be aware, the majority of these spending reductions were legislated for under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Laspo Act), which came into force on April 2013. The Ministry of Justice justified these cuts by saying they were vital in reducing government expenditure. However, my party and I have been very critical of these changes due to the negative impact which they are having on some of the most vulnerable in our society. The Government’s changes under the Laspo Act were designed to cut £350 million from the Ministry of Justice budget by 2015. The most major alteration was a restriction on the type of court cases which an individual could claim legal aid for. Apart from a few exceptions in each category, legal aid was removed for family law matters, cases involving welfare benefits, clinical negligence, education and employments cases, and housing law. As a result, it has been estimated that one in four people who used to be eligible for financial support are no longer entitled to it. The Conservatives have expressed their intention to go further with these cuts, indicating that they wish to make additional spending reductions of £220 million a year until 2018. Changes to legal aid have disproportionately affected disadvantaged groups in our society. While the Laspo Act was progressing through Parliament, numerous legal organisations criticised the cuts for the negative impact they would have on both lawyers and members of the general public. For instance, the Law Society and the President of the Supreme Court regularly spoke out against the piece of legislation during its progression through Parliament. The Citizens Advice Bureau also warned about the effect of the changes, and has since criticised that ‘[a]t precisely the time when people’s need for specialist advice on issues such as housing and welfare increased, provision for this support has been slashed.’ Academic investigations performed since the Act came into force have shown that legal aid cuts have had a significant impact on access to justice in the UK. A study organised by Hodge Jones & Allen, which was published earlier this month, found that 83% of legal professionals believe that the justice system is not accessible to the general public, 87% indicated that wealth was important in accessing justice, and 81% said the situation had gotten worse in the last five years. Other organisations have concurred with these findings, noting that it is the least affluent and most vulnerable who are suffering due to the Laspo Act. A study by Napo this year found that 68,000 children a year are adversely affected by cuts to legal aid, primarily due to the withdrawal of funding for family law cases. Many children are now deprived access to one or both of their parents, an issue which is compounded by the closure of child contact centres under wider austerity measures. Due to the stringent requirements on evidence required to prove domestic abuse in the last two years (and thereby qualify for legal aid) in family law cases, victims of abuse have been affected. The UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women even expressed concern about the restriction of women’s access to legal aid, and urged the Government to take urgent action to resolve this problem. Legal professionals are also experiencing difficulty due to the Laspo Act, and other cuts which have been made to the Ministry of Justice under the Coalition. Coupled with the reorganisation of duty contracts, these changes have meant that many solicitors now risk losing their jobs. The London Criminal Courts Solicitors’ Association (LCCSA) estimated that as many as two thirds of criminal solicitors may have to leave the profession due to the cuts. The Labour Party’s shadow Justice Secretary, Sadiq Khan, recognises that savings can be made to the Ministry of Justice budget, but thinks that the Government has approached this matter entirely wrong. He has stressed that early stage legal aid intervention is actually a good investment, preventing further costs for the taxpayer later down the line. This notion received support last week from the head of the National Audit Office, Amyas Morse, who indicated that legal aid cuts have not represented ‘overall value for money for the taxpayer’, as a result of the Government failing to ‘think through how and why people access legal aid.’ Morse noted that the substantial increase in the number of litigants in person due to the cuts has, in many cases, made legal disputes longer and more expensive. I hope this email provides you with my own views on the Coalition’s cuts to legal aid. I wish you every luck with the rest of your research and your presentation. Yours sincerely Kerry McCarthy Labour MP for Bristol East
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 11:45:15 +0000
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