REPORT ON APG MEETING, 8 JULY 2015
The new Parliament may be about to rise for the summer but there has been just time enough for the first meeting of the All-Party Group (APG) on Legal Aid, which has been newly constituted with the former Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer QC elected, unopposed, as chair.
Exceptional legal aid funding
YLAL meeting minutes 10 June 2015
Attendees: Oliver Carter, Heather Thomas, Camilla Graham Wood, Simao Paxi-Cato, Connor Johnston, Charlie Image, Lydia Andrews, Maia Cohen-Lask, Emily McFadden, Alp Gokturk, Subashini Nathan, Miranda Grell, Franck Magennis, Noemie Adam, Michael Goldin, Richard Bottomley, Andrew Lingard, Susanne Seaton, Verity Quaite, Aine Kervick, Joe Morgan, Michael Etienne, Hannah Manson, Ornina Kassem, Laura Wrixon and others.
1. Welcome and introduction
2. Campaigning for human rights
YLAL is concerned that the government has decided to proceed with plans to cut criminal legal aid by a further 8.75%, introduce dual contracts for Duty and Own Client work and restrict the number of Duty contracts available to 527 without any further consultation with the profession, other than an email 48 hours before the cuts were announced, asking for information to be provided within 24 hours on the impact on firms of the initial 8.75% cut. This can in no way be seen to be a proper consultation.
YLAL submitted this response to Junior Lawyer Division's survey on whether a trainee minimum salary should be reintroduced.
Based on research from our members, YLAL submitted a response to CILEx's paralegal enquiry earlier this year. Read our response here, and we anticipate the final report from CILEx later this year.
YLAL now write a regular feature for Young Lawyer and Solicitor's Journal updating on government reforms to legal aid, and developments in the profession from a junior lawyer's perspective. See our recent articles here:
Provide safe passage for unaccompanied child migrants March 2017
Blind pursuit of policy (damage called by LASPO) January 2017
Oliver Carter, co-chair of YLAL has been writing articles for online journal Legal Voice since 2014. His latest article was 'Labour lambasts government over access to justice 'crisis' following legal aid cuts,' November 2016
All his posts can be found here
YLAL committee members Deena Blacking and Simao Paxi-Cato report back from the Legal Aid Practitioners Group conference for the online journal Legal Voice:
http://www.legalvoice.org.uk/2014/10/22/lapg-conference-legal-aid-and-su...
What is this all about?
The Government has announced a new consultation on cuts to criminal legal aid, specifically its plans to reduce the number of contracts that let firms do “duty solicitor” work. The Government wants to drop the number of contracts from the current figure of around 1,600 contracts to 525.
