Back to the drawing board

Four years ago the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) received royal assent. In the following April cuts to legal aid were introduced that according to the government’s own estimates denied access to justice to over 300,000 people. Since the controversial legislation was approved by parliament there have been calls for it to be reviewed (see “Overdue review?”, Jon Robins, NLJ, 22 April 2016, p 7). In the Cabinet Office guide to making legislation it was recommended that a review should take place three to five years after the legislation received royal assent. So a review of LASPO should happen soon.

Rather like a parliamentary equivalent of motherhood and apple pie no government or political party seems to disagree with the merits of a system of post-legislative scrutiny. Legislative reviews though, tend not to carry much weight or lead to any change unless the government of the day accepts that mistakes need to be rectified.

Start from scratch

LASPO has