Criminal Legal Aid is Fragile and at Risk

People's human rights are being placed at risk due to the fragility of the criminal legal aid sector. An independent review has been called for by the House of Commons justice select committee, with the aim of devising a sustainable scheme. The scheme should take no longer than one year and should begin no later than March 2019. 

 

Professional obligations to review unused material without renumeration is placing additional pressures on defence practitioners which is unfair unsustainable and likely to become increasingly prejudicial to the defendant. 

 

Restoring legal aid payments for defence practitioners to review unused material above a certain threshold as part of a wider criminal legal aid review has been recommended. A panel which includes representatives from the criminal bar and solicitors firms should review the AGFS annually. The committee also suggests the panel's remit should include considering the inter-dependency between the advocates' and litigators' schemes, 'and the impact of changing the former on the operation of the latter'.

 

The government is also urged to conduct an urgent cross-departmental review of funding for all elements of the criminal justice system, in time to influence next year's 2019 spending review. Conservative MP Bob Neill, committee chair, said: 'In criminal cases, there is a common law right to legal advice, and a right to legal representation under the European Convention on Human Rights. There is compelling evidence of the fragility of the criminal bar and criminal defence solicitors' firms, which places these rights at risk – a risk which can no longer be ignored.'

 

The Law Society's head of justice, Richard Miller, recommended an independent review on the sustainability of the legal aid system, when he gave evidence to the committee earlier this year and therefore welcomes this request from The Home of Commons justice select committee. 

 

Society president Christina Blacklaws said: 'Criminal duty solicitors offer a vital public service, but cuts and the fact they have had no pay rises for more 20 years are driving more and more of them away from criminal defence work. Many lawyers no longer see a viable career doing criminal legal aid work, and it is difficult to attract newer members of the profession.'

 

Andrew Walker QC, chair of the Bar Council, said: 'At a time when public servants across government are finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel of austerity, there is no justification for excluding the dedicated barristers and solicitors whose daily struggles keep the criminal justice system going.'

 

Angela Rafferty QC, Criminal Bar Association chair, said there was now an opportunity to put things rights. 'The alternative is further dispute and disruption which cannot be in anyone's interests,' she added.

 

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