In its January 2021 budget recommendations to the Treasury this week, the Bar Council has called for an extra £55m to improve the ‘dirty and unsafe’ conditions in courts, an extra 42 Nightingale Courts on top of the 18 currently operating, non-means-tested legal aid for domestic abuse victims and early access to legal advice for welfare and benefits issues, both of which have increased during the pandemic
The Bar Council highlighted that restoring legal aid for early advice could prevent situations where a person’s benefits are wrongly stopped escalating to their being evicted from their home for non-payment of rent.
