Legal News
Ministry of Justice publishes its LASPO review (14 February 2019)
Date: 14/02/2019
On Thursday, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) published its long-awaited review into the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO), which sees the Government promising more money in order to fill the gaps in access to justice that were created by the legal aid reforms in 2013.
A legal support ‘action plan’ was announced by the MoJ which includes two key promises;
- £5m for ‘innovative technologies’ which may include Skype-like features or programs capable of converting lengthy written arguments into appropriate presentation which people can automatically put into a claim form.
- £3m over the course of two years to support unrepresented defendants.
The MoJ will also restore legal aid for migrant children separated from their families by spring 2019. The possibility of having more lawyers giving advice at GP surgeries has also been suggested.
Mixed reviews
Significantly, the 290-page document revealed that the financial eligibility thresholds for those seeking legal aid would be reviewed. The outcome of the review has been met with mixed reviews, with many welcoming the proposed changes but noting that many issues remain unaddressed.
President of the Law Society, Christina Blacklaws welcomed aspects of the review;
“The MoJ has accepted the case for changes in relation to the legal aid means test, exceptional case funding and early legal advice, and has committed to further work as to what those changes should look like.”
However she urged the government to give urgent attention to amending the means-test thresholds because;
“…the current levels are preventing families in poverty from accessing justice.”
The national organisation representing family lawyers, Resolution, also welcomed parts of the review, particularly the proposals to expend legal aid to cover special guardianship orders in private family law by autumn 2019. But Jo Edwards, who chairs Resolutions Family Law Group, insisted that more must be done to effectively address many of the issues caused by the cuts.
“The £8m of funding… represents little more than 2% of the £350m of annual cuts to the legal aid budget. The commitment from government… has to be backed up by meaningful funding. Otherwise children and families across the country will continue to suffer from a lack of access to justice.”
Richard Burgon MP, the shadow justice secretary, declared the review “too little, too late”, adding that the government had “wasted two years investigating the impact of its own legal aid cuts only to respond with no credible plan to end the suffering they have caused.”
Chair of the Bar Council, Richard Atkins QC, said he was disappointed. “This is a wasted opportunity,” he said. “The report offers little of substance to ease the impact of LASPO on vulnerable individuals seeking justice.”
He added that the additional cash was “but a drop in the ocean given the impact LASPO has had on restricting individuals’ access to justice”.
Duncan Lewis Solicitors’ Practice Director Jason Bruce gives his opinion on the review;
“As the largest provider of publicly funded legal services in the UK, Duncan Lewis Solicitors certainly welcomes many of the changes proposed by this review. However, further funding needs to be introduced in order to compensate for the cuts that were made to the legal aid budget in 2013. Without such, a significant number of vulnerable people across the UK who urgently require legal assistance but do not have the means to pay will continue to suffer as a result of a lack of access to justice.”
Duncan Lewis Solicitors
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