A cross-party group of MPs that warned of an ‘unacceptably high risk’ of miscarriages of justice due to the decreasing availability of legal aid has lambasted the government’s ‘inadequate’ response to its concerns.

A report published by the House of Commons justice select committee in July painted the bleakest picture to date of the legal aid sector and accused the lord chancellor of failing in his statutory duty on legal aid. The committee made 58 recommendations, which included raising eligibility and means test thresholds, identifying areas suffering from a critical shortage of providers for targeted action, fee uplifts and an independent pay review process.

The government’s response, the committee said today, was ‘highly disappointing’ and ‘inadequate’.

On the means test, the government said it would be better placed to take decisions on income threshold levels once court reforms are fully implemented. On the pay review process, the government ‘will consider whether there is value in establishing a review body’. Recent uplifts to police station fees will hopefully ‘positively impact’ duty solicitor numbers and ‘there is merit in the idea’ of reviewing criminal legal aid fees more regularly.

On civil legal aid, the government said it is taking the time to consider wider reforms to eligibility following the appointment of a new prime minister and ministerial team. On calls to uplift civil legal aid fees beyond housing and immigration, the government said the Ministry of Justice ‘is undertaking a programme to transform the delivery of legal aid and the Legal Aid Agency’s digital systems’.

Committee chair Catherine Atkinson MP said: ‘The government’s response to our [report] is disappointing. We acknowledge the crisis it inherited and support its ambition for a sustainable system that people can trust and access when they need it. But its response lacks the commitments needed to deliver that vision.

A legal aid system cannot be sustained by monitoring its decline and promising to explore solutions later. The government must revisit our recommendations and outline what action it will take. A system that people cannot qualify for or access, and that providers cannot sustainably deliver, is no system at all.’

Law Society president Brett Dixon said: 'The Justice Committee’s report makes a compelling case for accessible legal aid, yet the UK government has failed to engage in good faith with its recommendations. We are pleased to see the committee recognise the government’s inadequate response, particularly around court reforms and investment in civil legal aid that covers family, housing and other everyday cases that affect people’s lives.'