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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Access to justice and advice sector issues  →  Thread

Post-implementation review of the legal aid changes made by LASPO

shawn mach
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Written statement from the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice -

My predecessors ... committed to publish a post-implementation review of the legal aid changes made by the [Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act (LASPO) 2012] during its passage through Parliament. I have asked my officials to commence this review ...

... This review of Part 1 of the Act will be led by officials in my department. I am keen that we listen to views on these changes from all interested parties, and I will shortly be inviting individuals and organisations to join consultative panels and contribute to this review work.

The review will conclude before the start of the summer recess 2018 ...

http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2017-10-30/HCWS204/

[ Edited: 7 Feb 2019 at 04:08 pm by shawn mach ]
shawn mach
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Supporting doc:

This document serves as the post-legislative memorandum for Parts 1, 2 and 3 of LASPO. It is being published with regard to the post-legislative scrutiny process. The memorandum was presented to the Justice Select Committee on 30 October 2017.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-aid-sentencing-and-punishment-of-offenders-act-2012-post-legislative-memorandum

shawn mach
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Transcript of a debate in Westminster Hall yesterday on the Legal Aid: Post-Implementation Review -

Karen Buck (Westminster North) (Lab) -

We cannot have meaningful rights without the means of enforcing them, and we cannot have meaningful justice if people have no way of accessing it. Legal aid lies at the heart of both those assertions, which is why I very much welcome the Government’s review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 ...

Six years on from the Act’s passage, it is clear that the system is in crisis. Cuts to the Ministry of Justice were higher than to any other Department, at 40 per cent. The impact of cuts on that scale is simply unsustainable.

The review of the changes must provide answers - not rhetorical answers and warm words, but practical solutions.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice (Lucy Frazer) -

Before I address many of the important points made, I want to make three points, which concern the amount of money we have invested and continue to invest in legal aid*, the recent steps we have made to expand the scope of legal aid**, and the significant investment we are making in our justice system, which will assist all litigants more broadly*** ...

* - “... it is important to recognise that the Government spends £1.6bn a year on legal aid ....that is in addition to other sources of funding to ensure justice and the fair determination of rights.”

** - “In January, we broadened the accepted evidence for domestic violence and removed all time limits ... In February ... we broadened the scope for legal aid for prisoners, and in June we updated the legal guidance for inquests on cases involving deaths in custody ...”

*** - “... the Government are making a significant investment to transform our courts and tribunal services - we are investing £1 billion to bring our justice system into the 21st century.”

More: https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-09-04/debates/B65C30AA-032A-4957-9064-EA19A3891488/LegalAidPost-ImplementationReview

 

shawn mach
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Report on the debate from the Law Society Gazette:

The government is confident that the legal aid sector is operating at sufficient capacity - despite being told that legal aid lawyers are ‘hanging on by the skin of their teeth’.

More: https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/law/legal-aid-lawyers-hanging-on-by-the-skin-of-their-teeth-minister-
told/5067429.article

Andyp5 Citizens Advice Bridport & District
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Find this via Rightsnet Twitter stuff link below and attached documents for the non twitterati i.e. people like me, worth a read, particularly the impact of LASPO cuts section on welfare benefits just in case anyone missed this!

Apologies esteemed Rightsnet people for any duplication, just to good for people not to miss, assuming they had!

Some food for thought and stuff too cite re: funding applications arguably.

The Justice Papers: Personal accounts published by @thebarcouncil describing first-hand what the justice system looks like at the sharp-end of the cuts https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/media-centre/the-justice-papers/

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shawn mach
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Looks like the review might be out today ... Justice Secretary making a statement in the Commons at lunchtime ...

https://calendar.parliament.uk/calendar/Commons/All/2019/2/7/Daily

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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shawn mach
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Cheers Paul ....

... in the intro they say things like:

“Publicly funded legal aid and representation is the right support in some circumstances, but not all .. “

“... for too long legal support has been focused solely on funding court disputes, with less emphasis on how problems can be resolved earlier and avoid them escalating into more problematic issues that require a court visit.”

“Our ambition is to catch problems before this point, intervening at an early stage through services that that prioritise the individual and are delivered at the right time, and in the right way for them.”

shawn mach
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Also published today ... a new Action Plan to transform legal support -

The Action Plan is the first step towards overhauling the legal support system; promoting early intervention to resolve problems before they escalate, drawing together the full and diverse range of legal support already being delivered and developing innovative services to help people access justice at the right time and in the right way for them.

Includes reviewing the thresholds for legal aid entitlement and wider eligibility criteria;  amending the Exceptional Case Funding process to improve timeliness and making it easier to access; and expanding the scope of legal aid to include, for example, legal aid for non-asylum immigration matters for separated migrant children.

Also includes:

- Investing up to £5m in innovative forms of legal support, harnessing the power of the UK’s thriving LawTech sector to modernise and expand the services on offer. Thorough testing of innovative new solutions will ensure funding is spent most effectively;
- Doubling funding for the Litigants in Person Support Strategy to £3m for the next two years, to ensure those representing themselves in court understand the process and are better supported through it;
- Ensuring early intervention by delivering a series of pilots to explore new ways of delivering legal support and enhanced services for people in need. This will include testing new approaches to signposting support early in the process; piloting and testing legal support hubs; and bringing together existing legal support services; and
- Piloting the expansion of legal aid to cover early legal advice in a specific area of social welfare law. We will test the impact of early legal advice and use the evidence to inform our future consideration of early intervention.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-new-vision-for-legal-support
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-support-action-plan

 

 

shawn mach
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shawn mach
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Response from the chair of the Justice Committee Bob Neill -

There are a number of positive proposals in the review and accompanying action plan but, in several key areas, proposals for further reviews and pilot evaluations risk being seen as ‘kicking the can down the road’.

As I pointed out in Parliament today, these must be swift and focused as the pressures across the whole justice system - and the risk elements of LASPO continue to pose to access to justice - are real and immediate.

... The intention of ‘intervening earlier and catching problems before they escalate’, as we called for, is welcome.

We will want to know more, urgently, about what is meant by ‘legal support’ in the review – this suggests a hand-holding approach rather than providing actual legal advice.

There is no substitute for early qualified legal advice in some cases – just as in medical matters you often need a doctor or a nurse rather than just an online guide.

The review speaks of awareness raising about access to advice, which is good, but we have heard there’s already a desperate lack of capacity in advice centres so in this case it’s hard to see how simply ‘raising awareness’ will help.

More: https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/justice-committee/news-parliament-2017/legal-aid-statement-17-19/

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Response from the Law Centres Network:

Government has cut nearly a third of the legal aid budget, some £751million. The help lost – tens of thousands of cases – could have mitigated against massive welfare reforms, or helped uphold workers’ rights, or prevented the Windrush scandal. In this context, committing a one-off £8million - just 1% of what was lost - to non-legal support, tech development or innovation does precious little to bridge the immediate, yawning justice gap.

More: http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/policy/news/news/from-crisis-to-a-viable-future-our-initial-response-to-the-legal-aid-review

.... and from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group:

One of the areas where we strongly disagree with the review is with the conclusion that the network of advice providers, whether law firms or advice agencies, is sustainable. That is contrary to all the evidence we provided, which shows providers are struggling to keep afloat, following years of static or reduced fees, and increased bureaucracy. Law Centres and advice centres have closed down and high street legal aid practitioners have pulled out of legal aid. Much more needs to be done now to make sure that we have a justice system for the future.

More: https://www.lapg.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/LASPO-PIR-Press-Release-7.2.19.pdf