YLAL proposes amendments to Legal Aid Bill

YLAL has submitted a number of amendments to the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill to be considered by the Bill Committee.

We will be submitting detailed written evidence to the Committee later in the summer, but in the meantime, in order to complement the work of other groups, we have focused our amendments on:

• the need for legal aid to be available to secure access to justice and uphold the rule of law;
• the need for legally aided advice to be just as good quality as legal advice given to those who can afford to pay for a lawyer privately;
• the need to promote social mobility and diversity within the legal aid sector;
• the need to ensure that new entrants into the profession receive proper training and supervision;
• the need for legal aid to be administered independently of government.

Our amendments can be viewed here.

The amendments will be debated on Tuesday 19th July 2011.