The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) failed to think through the impact of its legal aid reforms on the wider system and does not know whether people who are eligible for legal aid are able to get it, a devastating report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has warned.
Its report, Implementing reforms to civil legal aid, notes that fees for legal aid lawyers were reduced “without a robust understanding of how this would affect the market”, and its monitoring has been “limited”. NAO analysis showed that in 14 local authorities no providers started any face-to-face legal aid funded work during 2013-14, raising the question of whether funding is being targeted at those most in need.
The MoJ reduced fees paid to civil legal aid providers by 10% between October 2011 and February 2012, and removed legal aid entirely from many areas of civil and family law in April 2013 as well as narrowing the eligibility criteria.
According to NAO estimates, these efforts could reduce spending on civil legal aid by £300m a year although they create an additional cost for the MoJ of £3.4m, and will lead to an annual spending reduction of £268m.
However, the NAO criticizes the MoJ’s failure to increase mediation referrals for private family matters such as divorce and separation—the MoJ predicted a rise in mediation referrals of 9,000 per year but in fact there were 17,246 fewer mediation assessments in 2013-14, a 56% decrease on the previous year. It highlights the 30% (18,519) increase in family cases where there are litigants-in-person on both sides, creating extra cost and delay—the NAO estimate the additional cost to be at least £3m per year. It also warns of the extra costs to the wider public sector if people lose access to legal advice and suffer consequences to their health and wellbeing as a result.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, says: “The MoJ is on track to make significant and quick reductions in its spending on civil legal aid.
“However, it has been slower to think through how and why people access civil legal aid; the scale of the additional costs to the Ministry likely to be generated by people choosing to represent themselves; and the impact on the ability and willingness of providers to provide legal services for the fees paid. Without this understanding, the Ministry’s implementation of the reforms to civil legal aid cannot be said to have delivered better overall value for money for the taxpayer.”
The Legal Aid Agency would have been expected to approve 685,459 civil legal aid matters in 2013-14 without the reforms, and was expected to approve 361,551 of the same as a result of the reforms. However, it actually approved 17% fewer than that, or 300,496 matters.
Jo Edwards, chair of Resolution, says: “The NAO has confirmed what those of us who work with separating families have been warning of for years: that these cuts were poorly thought through and that they’ve put the courts under more pressure.
"With more people representing themselves, family cases invariably take longer, taking up more of the courts’ time and resource—with the result that the family courts really are at breaking point. What’s more, the report highlights the unquantifiable impact on other areas of public sector spending.
“The government needs to commit to a full impact assessment as soon as possible in the light of this report.”
Sadiq Khan MP, Labour’s shadow secretary of state for justice, says: “This damning report by the National Audit Office completely exposes David Cameron’s reckless assault on access to justice for what it really is; bad value for money and leaving hundreds of thousands without proper legal advice.”
