Just Thinking


John Ballam asks where the word 'justice' appears in the Legal Services Commission's (LSC) consultation paper on police station reforms (see [2007] Gazette, 13 April, 11). I write to pre-empt Carolyn Regan telling him it appears twice in the first paragraph of her foreword and four other times elsewhere.



A better question is: where is the concept of justice in the LSC's thinking?



For that he should look back at the report the LSC and Department for Constitutional Affairs commissioned from Frontier Economics in 2003. We all recall this, saying there was no excess demand for civil legal aid. This was because the definition of demand was not what legal services are needed by the socially excluded; it is what the Treasury will pay for.



As the report said (footnote 39 on page 68): 'To stay within the budget constraint imposed by SR2002 therefore also implies an increase in the degree of rationing for civil legal aid.' No emphasis needed.



Neil Howlett, Harris & Harris, Frome, Somerset