The Justice Committee is conducting an Inquiry into the future of legal aid and launched a consultation on 7 September 2020 with the following terms of reference:
How LASPO has affected access to justice views on the post-implementation review and the criminal legal aid review;
The role of the Legal Aid Agency;
Recruitment and retention problems among legal aid professionals;
On 31 July 2020, the Government established the Independent Review of Administrative Law (“the Review”), consisting of a panel of six practitioners and academics, and published its Terms of Reference (“the TOR”).
It has been reported that defence practitioners today staged a walk out of Bristol Magistrates' Court over unsafe working conditions, including a lack of social distancing, COVID compliant meeting rooms, and inadequate ventilation. The lack of risk assessments and wifi in the cells area has also been criticised.
We are grateful to Amany for this piece, who is a YLAL member and currently undertaking work experience to save up for her upcoming Bar course.
On 17 September 2020, the Ministry of Justice published its most recent statistics on the diversity of the judiciary. The findings are unambiguous and dispiriting; our judiciary is predominantly white, male and middle class.
This piece was written by YLAL members Chloe Darcy and Ella Cornwall.
On Wednesday 9 September 2020, One Pump Court Chambers hosted a #YLALVirtual meeting reflecting on the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic six months on from the passage of the Coronavirus Act. The meeting explored how the pandemic has affected different areas of social welfare law and the criminal justice system since lockdown began in March. Ciara Bartlam, YLAL committee member and barrister at Garden Court North Chambers, chaired the meeting.
Welcome to our update of the latest legal aid and access to justice news from August 2020.
On 21 August 2020, the Lord Chancellor, Robert Buckland QC, wrote to YLAL in response to our submission to the consultation on the accelerated areas of the Criminal Legal Aid Review.
YLAL's full submission to the consultation can be found here.
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We are thrilled to report that the government has conceded that the new “fixed fees” for asylum and immigration legal aid work are unlawful. It will revoke the fixed fees regulations and put transitional measures in place to pay practitioners for the time they actually spend on cases while a proper consultation is undertaken.
This is a hugely important win for access to justice and follows a series of important legal challenges.
