The government’s legal aid review will finish in 2020 but profession warns urgent action needed to address crisis

The government’s review into criminal legal aid fees will not be ready until 2020, despite warnings that the crisis is now so severe that the number of criminal duty solicitors is fast dwindling to nothing.

Although the Ministry of Justice has promised to share updates in the meantime, the Law Gazette reports that the final report of the long-promised review into funding cuts introduced by the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) is not due until the end of Summer 2020.

That may come too late to address the widely reported crisis facing the sector. Senior judges on the Civil Justice Council have said that pro bono services are “overwhelmed” by a “dramatic” rise in demand since LASPO introduced restrictions on the scope and eligibility of legal aid services. Meanwhile, Supreme Court President Baroness Hale intervened this month to say that the government’s austerity policies have “undoubtedly” made life harder for struggling families “and posed some uncomfortable problems for the courts”.

Elsewhere, some 200 junior barristers have said they would support a return to striking if the government fails to address the legal aid funding crisis, claiming that the government has not done anywhere near enough to address the serious remuneration problems facing junior criminal barristers. 

Christina Blacklaws, president of the Law Society, said that immediate action is needed to address the dire situation facing people who cannot afford legal representation and the lawyers who represent them: “We welcome the review of criminal legal aid fees and we hope this exercise is accompanied by a commitment to increase spending on criminal legal aid. Reporting on a fundamental rethink in 2020 is all very well, but we are facing a crisis today. Twenty years without any increases in fees, and a series of drastic cuts has meant there are not enough young lawyers entering the field of criminal defence work.

“The absolute minimum that is required immediately is for the government to ensure the position stops getting any worse, by implementing an immediate cost of living increase in all remuneration rates, and committing to do so every year. It is also essential that the review includes an independent analysis of what is required to ensure the market is economically sustainable. Means testing thresholds should similarly be uprated.”