Legal professional bodies gave a guarded welcome to today’s 2025 Spending Review - but the welcome was noticeably cooler in the civil justice sector.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said the chancellors announcement of extra funding 'gives the public hope that the justice system is a growing priority for the government'.
However he said that more investment is needed in a justice system starved of investment for decades. 'It will take long-term sustained funding to fix it, including in civil and criminal legal aid to address the crises there,' he said.
In her response, bar vice chair Kirsty Brimelow KC agreed: 'The average real terms increase in Ministry of Justice funding of 3.1% is a welcome recognition by the government that justice is a key public service. Money for increasing court capacity, tackling court backlogs, and implementing the recommendations from the Independent Review of Criminal Courts are signs of listening by government to our voices from the courts.
'Increased funding for the probation service is long overdue, and funding of the Crown Prosecution Service will enable them to achieve parity between prosecution and defence pay in the Crown courts.’
Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association also welcomed the extra money for the CPS and probation. However he added that other parts of the justice system need investment too. 'There was no mention of tackling the dire shortage of legal advisers in magistrates’ courts, which is leading to up to one in 10 sittings being cancelled, or the need to recruit up to 6,000 additional magistrates over the next few years to hear the extra cases, especially if the new intermediate courts come to fruition. And, while there was plenty of capital spending for new prison places, there was no mention of the need to invest in our crumbling court buildings.'
He was also sceptical about the expectation on the MoJ to find substantial efficiency savings. 'Some past efficiency measures could more accurately have been called corner-cutting, which led to greater inefficiencies and court delays, and we will be urging the ministry to act with care and caution,' he said.
Meanwhile, Matthew Maxwell Scott, executive director of the Association of Consumer Support Organisations, which represents the interests of consumers in the civil justice system, said that real terms spending is still lower than it was 15 years ago. 'This will only serve to cement the unwanted status of the civil system in particular as a Cinderella service, with the gaze of our politicians forever elsewhere. The long delays in our civil courts and the gradual decay of our legal system needs to capture ministers’ attention or we will see a further loss of confidence in law firms and others to invest in the technology and training necessary to improve services.
'The Spending Review provides all the evidence necessary to show that where successive governments have chosen not to act, the sector itself needs to step up and find industry-led solutions to the challenges we face if people are to have access to justice.'
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