Nowhere else to turn: the impact of legal aid cuts on MP’s

Young Legal Aid Lawyers have produced an excellent report that aims to study the impact of legal aid reforms on MPs and their ability to help their constituents. It is not intended to be a comprehensive research project: rather it is a “snapshot” study to indicate current trends and future challenges.

They contacted all MPs who represent constituencies in England and Wales to ask if they would take part in the study. The responses come from MPs and caseworkers in 45 constituencies from across the political spectrum, in both urban and rural settings across England and Wales. The study also incorporates responses from 128 constituents in 30 of those constituencies.

The findings include:

* Constituents frequently turn to MPs as a last resort when they have been unable to resolve legal problems. In the six-month period preceding the study, 38.4% of MPs’ casework had involved legal issues.
* MPs dedicate significant time and resources to assisting their constituents in resolving problems. 20% of MPs estimated that they dealt with 200-500 constituent inquiries per month and 13% estimated this figure as over 500.
* There is a limit to the assistance that MPs are able to provide their constituents. Put simply, MPs lack the resources and the expertise to assist with complex legal problems.
* In order to assist their constituents, MPs rely on publicly funded sources of legal advice such as legal aid solicitor firms, Law Centres and Citizens Advice Bureaux (CABx). During the six months preceding the study, 71.1% of MPs had needed to refer constituents to a legal adviser.
* Local advice services are already strained, which means that constituents are increasingly turning to MPs because they cannot find other help locally. Also, it means that MPs options for referring constituents on to specialists are limited.
* The areas of law that are to be removed from the scope of legal aid correspond closely with those areas for which constituents habitually turn to their MPs for assistance.

Overall, the study indicates that constituents who are affected by the legal aid cuts are likely to seek assistance from their MPs. The increase in workload may be amplified by the wider reforms which are taking place across Government. This is likely to place increased pressure on the time and resources of MPs. There is a risk that MPs will struggle to deal appropriately with this pressure and that constituents will be adversely affected as a result.

Nowhere else to turn: the impact of legal aid cuts on MP’s ability to help their constituents (pdf file)