The Justice Committee called on ministers to prioritise restoring criminal, civil and family legal aid, in its report, ‘Access to justice: legal aid’, published last week.
It found the financial eligibility threshold for criminal legal aid in the magistrates’ court was ‘shockingly low’, highlighting that an individual working for the national minimum wage might earn too much to be eligible. The means-test threshold has not been uprated since 2009. While insufficient data exists to gauge the level of self-representation in the magistrates’ court, the report suggests it could be as high as 50%. This includes cases where defendants could be sent to prison.
The committee recommended the government uprate the legal aid thresholds to reflect inflation and set up an independent mechanism to review and recommend future uplifts to the Lord Chancellor.
The MPs also highlighted ‘unacceptably low’ eligibility for civil legal aid, leaving people including domestic abuse victims in desperate situations. They noted legal aid lawyers are ‘under severe strain’, with work in housing, family, mediation and immigration and asylum often being loss making.
Andy Slaughter MP, chair of the Justice Committee, said: ‘Eligibility has failed to keep pace with the rising cost of living, with capacity reducing, provision increasingly patchy or non-existent and future sustainability in question.’
CILEX president Sara Fowler said: ‘This report should act as a wake-up call to the government.
‘Access to justice for all is a fundamental aspect of our democracy and as it stands, legal aid provision is falling well short of delivering that. In many cases, people need access to legal representation in their local area and remote advice should not be used to substitute local face-to-face services—justice cannot be done on the cheap.’
