The justice select committee described the criminal duty solicitor scheme as being in a ‘dire state’
A report released by a UK House of Commons justice select committee has found the criminal legal aid sector to be “financially unsustainable,” per the Law Society Gazette.
The committee’s investigation also revealed that the criminal duty solicitor scheme was in a “dire state” and that the civil legal aid provider base was severely strained. Moreover, a “justice gap” has been created as a result of frozen eligibility thresholds in civil legal aid, according to snippets of the report published by the Gazette.
The means test in criminal legal aid has not been modified since 2009, disqualifying current minimum-wage earners from being able to secure legal aid in the magistrates’ court. Criminal legal aid providers’ financial positions has declined as well, and the committee described the £135 million recommendation from the Bellamy review as out of date.
Civil legal aid providers’ rates were also considered “fundamentally uneconomical,” with the committee indicating that recent increases in fees for housing and immigration work came “too little, too late,” per snippets published by the Gazette. The committee said the organization setup of the Legal Aid Agency was “deficient” and flagged the lack of adequate compensation for providers forced to log additional hours by last year’s cyberattack.
The committee concluded that lord chancellor David Lammy was failing to meet his statutory duty to make legal aid available given the inadequate service provision “across all categories of law,” per snippets published by the Gazette. According to Mark Evans, Law Society of England and Wales president, the report revealed the effect of underinvestment.
“A cross-party committee of MPs has now confirmed what law centres see every day - millions of people are trapped in a justice gap, unable to get legal aid and unable to pay for legal help…When a single person must survive on £9 a day after housing costs to qualify for legal aid, and survivors of domestic abuse face their abusers in court alone because they work in low-paid work, this is not a system under strain. It is a system that has broken,” said Julie Bishop, Law Centres Network director, said in a statement published by the Gazette.
Evans added that the government’s response to the report under incoming prime minister Andy Burnham would be “a key test of its commitment to ensuring the legal system works for everyone.”
The justice select committee’s report made 58 recommendations, which included the following:
- Increasing eligibility and means test thresholds
- Flagging areas lacking providers for targeted action
- Increasing fees and implementing an independent pay evaluation process
- Amending LAA objectives
Sara Fowler, CILEX president, called for the elimination of barriers preventing eligible CILEX lawyers from participating in the police station duty scheme. The committee report indicated that targeted police station fee increases were likely inadequate to future-proof the duty solicitor scheme.
Earlier this week, the UK justice ministry launched a consultation on the allocation of a £34 million investment into criminal advocate fees. Under the proposal, barristers’ fees would increase by 11 percent on average.
