The government’s response to the legal aid crisis has left the system in ‘managed decline’, MPs have warned, after ministers failed to accept or reject any of 28 recommendations aimed at improving access to justice. In a report published yesterday, the House of Commons Justice Committee described the government’s response as ‘highly disappointing’ and ‘inadequate’, warning that further delays threatened access to legal representation.
The committee’s July report identified an ‘unacceptably high risk of miscarriages of justice’ arising from declining legal aid provision and increasing self-representation. ‘We reject the implication that generic support in criminal court for unrepresented defendants is a substitute for proper representation’, the report states.
MPs criticised ministers for postponing changes to criminal legal aid eligibility until after court reforms, despite the magistrates’ court income threshold remaining unchanged since 2009. The committee warned that proposed increases to magistrates’ sentencing powers made legal representation more urgent, rejecting the suggestion that general support for unrepresented defendants could substitute for lawyers.
Catherine Atkinson MP, committee chair, acknowledged ‘the crisis’ the government had ‘inherited’. ‘But its response lacks the commitments needed to deliver that vision. Far too many people are being denied the legal advice and representation they urgently need,’ she said; adding their report ‘laid bare the scale of the barriers they face’. ‘Financial eligibility thresholds remain unacceptably low, having failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living, while falling provider numbers are putting essential help increasingly out of reach. Defendants face the prospect of prison without legal advice or representation. As plans to extend magistrates’ sentencing powers move forward, the case for immediate intervention could not be more urgent.’
‘A legal aid system cannot be sustained by monitoring its decline and promising to explore solutions later. The government must revisit our recommendations and outline what action it will take. A system that people cannot qualify for or access, and that providers cannot sustainably deliver, is no system at all. As legal aid approaches its 80th anniversary in 2029, we need to secure its future for the next 80 years. That requires action now.’
Catherine Atkinson
Ministers also declined to extend fee increases beyond housing and immigration legal aid, despite evidence that some civil legal aid rates have remained unchanged since 1996. The government defended its record, citing £20 million in annual housing and immigration legal aid funding, alongside increased criminal legal aid investment.
Courts Minister Sarah Sackman acknowledged that the government had ‘much more to do’, but said improving legal aid was a long-term commitment. ‘A legal aid system cannot be sustained by monitoring its decline and promising to explore solutions later’, the committee stated. ‘The government must revisit our recommendations and outline what action it will take. A system that people cannot qualify for or access, and that providers cannot sustainably deliver, is no system at all’.
