Legal profession applauds publication of Bach Commission report, The Right to Justice

The Bach Commission has today published its report, The Right to Justice, including recommendations for a statutory right to justice, reforms to legal aid, and better public legal education. All three branches of the profession have responded to its publication, vociferously in support of its recommendations.

Law Society vice-president Christina Blacklaws said: "Lawyers have a moral duty to speak up when they fear justice has been denied or obstructed. This review adds yet more weight to the central message in our own recent report on access to justice, LASPO Four Years On, that cuts to legal aid have had a massive impact on people’s ability to enforce and defend their rights. If people cannot access advice or protect their rights, then effectively those rights do not exist.”

The Bar Council responded to the Bach report with an emphasis on the change that is taking place in the link between access to justice and the rule of law. Chair of the Bar, Andrew Langdon QC, said: “This report is part of a shift in how legal aid is being discussed. Lord Bach makes the important point that the rule of law and legal rights do not mean much unless citizens are able, through the legal system, to have them upheld, and that cuts to legal aid have made that impossible for many, especially the most vulnerable in society.”

He made the point that many of the proposals and concerns outlined in the report echo those made by the Bar over many years, including “shrinkage of the junior Bar, the removal of entire areas of law from the scope of legal aid and the growth of advice deserts, together with the loss of expertise and the availability of legal advice in areas such as housing, immigration and debt”.

CILEx President Millicent Grant said: “For some years now we have seen access to justice and the rule of law deprioritised in the public discourse. We see this in the removal of whole areas of law from the scope of legal aid, in the increasing cost of using the courts system, and in the reduction in publicly funded sources of free legal support. In this light, it is refreshing to read the Bach Commission’s final report, showing the ambitious thinking needed to halt the decline in access to justice, and putting forward proposals to turn the situation around. We hope that the commission’s recommendations will be carefully considered by all parties.”