Sentencing discount u-turn sparks fears of deeper legal aid cuts
Fears that the government may be planning to implement even deeper cuts to legal aid than it has already signalled rose significantly today.
Prime minister David Cameron is widely reported to have shelved key parts of justice secretary Kenneth Clarke’s plan to give offenders a 50% reduction in jail terms in return for early guilty pleas.
This will mean more savings will have to be found from elsewhere in Clarke’s departmental budget, and may partly explain why publication of the forthcoming Justice Bill outlining the legal aid reforms has been delayed.
The sentencing reforms were expected to save £130m from the MoJ budget.
The Gazette exclusively reported a week ago that the government may be planning to cut legal aid further following Clarke’s politically maladroit remarks about rape sentencing.
Sources told the Gazette then that Legal Services Commission Carolyn Downs had indicated that the government was reviewing its sentencing policy and would be looking to make increased savings elsewhere.
The remarks were allegedly made at two controversial meetings held by the LSC with large providers of legal aid.
The LSC denied Downs had confirmed this to the meetings, stating that the perception had arisen from ‘leading questions’ put to her on which she refused to commit herself.
Comments
I'm not so sure headlines like this are helpful
Personally, I think talk of 'even further cuts' is not helpful. All it does is help ensure that the fight is gone out of the profession, and any interested parties, when the decision on the legal aid green paper is announced
My prediction is that the details of any "further savings" in lieu of the sentencing issue will not be announced before or even to coincide with the announcement on the legal aid green paper. This will allow Government to insinuate that it is better to accept its final decision on the legal aid green paper as it stands, or risk further (unknown and perhaps terrifying) cuts. I think it's a false trail
As such, I think a better approach for the Gazette I might respectfully suggest would be to raise the issue of whether any further savings or attempts to cut into the legal aid budget beyond those originally envisaged would, in fact, have any proper legal standing given that they would not have been consulted on as part of the current green papers
When is the Green Paper coming out? It is overdue.
Please can someone say when the Green Paper on Legal Aid is coming out?
I seem to remember the Gazette announcing that it would be 1 June 2011. We are way past that now and there is no sign of any announcements/papers from the MoJ.
Can the editor/journalists at The Gazette please clarify what is happening in this regard - especially as they said they knew when it was coming out.
Thank you.
We're hearing next week now,
We're hearing next week now, probably Wednesday. I take the first poster's point - though our story originally arose from (contested) reports of what was said at the meetings between the LSC and large legal aid providers, it was not supposition. The Guardian is also among those speculating today that legal aid could again be in the line of fire as KC tries to find another £130m. And it is speculation, of course. We shall see I suppose.
Paul Rogerson
Editor in chief
Green Paper
Thank you very much, Paul.
Much appreciated.
Another MoJ bodge..
The Ministry of Justice - officials as much as Ministers - have shown themselves to be truly disfunctional and not fit for purpose in the way they have handled all this. Not only did they manage to secure themselves a very poor settlement out of the spending review (CSR) process last year, but have shown negligible understanding of the operational issues in legal aid, have no grasp at all of their own costs base, have undertaken sloppy impact assessments full of VERY basic mathematical errors and wild guestimates about savings, have shown scant grasp of procedural issues in the criminal justice system, and have no process at all for evidence based policy-making or using data (such as the LSRC) to inform policy. What is the point of having a seperate Justice Minsitry (a good idea in principle) when they show such incompetance and lack of knowledge?
People will keep working for
People will keep working for the ever decreasing legal aid fees. No-one will ever strike. Everyone will keep complaining about how unfair it is, how access to justice is being eroded, but not doing anything. If all the defence solicitors & barristers went on strike, no-one could get rep at police station, no duty at court, then something would have to be done. But it will never happen, you occasionally get some tough talk or a strongly worded letter, maybe even a protest march, but nothing that can't be ignored.
The problem is that often
The problem is that often with strikes the general public gets behind them (and often panics) which helps the corner of the group striking. This is the case whether it is firefighters, police or airline crew striking as the general public see it affecting them and want the government to fix it.
Legal aid defence solicitors are not likely to get their support. The public generally dislike defence solicitors who are paid to represent the criminals when Joe Public is upstanding and law abiding, so the public are not going to support what they will see as money-grabbing solicitors trying to get more money out of the public purse when they are suffering at the moment.
Whilst a strike to object to the cuts is one way to go, the public perception if that happens may bring public opinion solidly on the side of the government and not help the case.
N.B. Before anyone objects the above is not my personal opinion of legal aid defence solicitors!
Get Real
* Most firms dealing with legal aid couldn't withstand the cash flow implications of any strikes. Some are hand to mouth and heavily overdrawn.
* This profession does not have a union culture and many legal aid firms (especially the struggling ones) would break the strike to keep going. I’m afraid there would be one too many scabs so the strike would be broken.
*I cannot imagine the boys at Clifford Chance with placards outside Canary Wharf to support us and if we couldn’t gain support from our own profession (albeit from a different practicing area) I doubt we would have any public support. After the attack from the TUC I doubt even they would help us!
* If Asil Nadir does get legal aid then we really have little hope of persuading anyone to resist the cuts.
* I’m afraid strikes will not happen.
Justice Bill - latest on timing of publication
The Justice Bill now appears to have been delayed by several weeks. The Ministry of Justice have just confirmed to us that it is expected 'in the next few weeks'.
Rachel Rothwell
News editor
Big Society Disaster
We all need to be ready to respond rapidly to these proposals when they eventually come out focusing on how this is a BIG SOCIETY DISASTER particularly for the not for profit sector with the end of Law Centres and stressing again and again how the cuts will actually increase the deficit. We need a clear strategy from the Law Society bringing all legal aid providers together and concentrating on getting clients stories in the media. These cuts are beatable if everyone pulls together.
Big Society Disaster
We all need to be ready to respond rapidly to these proposals when they eventually come out focusing on how this is a BIG SOCIETY DISASTER particularly for the not for profit sector with the end of Law Centres and stressing again and again how the cuts will actually increase the deficit. We need a clear strategy from the Law Society bringing all legal aid providers together and concentrating on getting clients stories in the media. These cuts are beatable if everyone pulls together.
Delay in bill publication....
If you're not in a top 400 legal aid law firm, prepare yourself... Given that the publication of the bill, due today, is now some weeks off, and that today's draft is at least £100 million more generous than the final version, I'll bet the only way the money can be saved is by concentrating the cash in the hands of a few firms and cutting down the admin costs. Labour's legal aid masterplan will finally be enacted by a Tory government and no political party will have room to complain. The time for talking is done. To each practitioner, only action or acquiescence remain as viable options.