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  • Justice Committee: Reforms will hit vulnerable people hardest

Justice Committee: Reforms will hit vulnerable people hardest

The Justice Select Committee has issued a report on its enquiry into proposed legal aid reforms. The Committee urged the Government to think again about reforms due to insufficient information about their impact. Their report notes that while there is consensus on the need to reduce legal aid cost ‘Concerns remain......that there is the potential for vulnerable groups of people to be disproportionately hit by the changes.’ The Committee notes that lack of capacity elsewhere in the advice sector to cope with demand not met by legal aid provision.

The Government is expected to publish its own response to the consultation on legal aid reform in May. A Bill to implement the reforms is expected in the same month. It remains to be seen whether the cross-party Select Committee’s findings and recommendations are acted on.

Polluter pays

The Government is urged by the Committee to look at alternative ways to reduce costs, including a ‘polluter pays’ approach. The Committee has noted issues raised by AdviceUK and other commentators on the preventable, systemic failings in public administration that contribute to demand and costs. Singling out the Department for Work & Pensions in particular, the Committee’s view is that ‘it will also be necessary for public bodies to improve their decision-making so as to generate fewer appeals to the courts and tribunals, an approach which needs to be encouraged by shifting financial responsibility for some of the costs to the bodies whose decisions incur them.’

AdviceUK welcomes this acknowledgement, but we think the suggested approach of making DWP pay for their mistakes is wrong-headed. A better way and one we are testing out with advice agencies and Council in Nottingham is to link benefits offices and advice services at decision-making level so that failings and poor decisions can be spotted early and prevented and systems can be continually improved. Making DWP pay may well be what Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly described at 'robbing Peter to pay Paul' without a systematic method for improvement that involves those that spot problems daily - advice services.

Domestic violence - perverse incentive

The Committee has also stated on its web site that it 'calls on the Government to reconsider its use of domestic violence as a gateway to legal aid funding in family law cases and expresses concerns that the proposals could create a perverse incentive to make false accusations of domestic violence.  It calls on the Government to bring forward alternative proposals by which to focus family law legal aid on the most deserving cases.'

Telephone gateway: access issues but worth pursuing

The Committee has noted concerns about the effectiveness of a telephone gateway for vulnerable clients but, given the scale of savings that can be made, has urged the Government to explore the option with caution.

The report and further information is available from the Justice Select Committee web site.

Download AdviceUK’s submission to the Committee below.

 

 

Attached documents