Legal aid reviews
Tom McNally believes a cross-party consensus needs to be built to establish a broadly acceptable level of legal aid. He also supports renationalisation of the probation service and fears that the Conservatives are plotting a fresh assault on the Human Rights Act.
A Liberal Democrat peer, ex-justice minister in the coalition government and one-time deputy leader of the House of Lords, his experience at the highest levels of government stretches back more than 40 years. But it has been cuts to legal aid – imposed by the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government – and law reform that have preoccupied his recent years at Westminster. It is a legacy about which he harbours some regrets while remaining refreshingly forthright. His views may well be tested again when the government publishes its long-awaited review on the impact of legal aid cuts.
Labour helped these devastating legal aid cuts along. Now it’s time to fix it | Charles Falconer
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For months in 2012, McNally battled rebellious peers through late-night sittings over contentious clauses of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (Laspo) Act. The legislation was not meant to be so draconian, he says. “It was supposed to be about the rehabilitation revolution. It started off as a genuine reforming bill but ran into constant demands from No 10 to add [more] in. That was where ‘punishment of offenders’ came from.” But parliament passed it and despite what the Labour party has said since then, “they were [also] committed in the 2010 election to further cuts,” McNally says.
“We had consistently thought we were becoming too litigious a society and that ways must be found to direct people from [that instinct] deep in the English DNA that everyone is entitled to their day in court. Whether every man is entitled to his day in court at the taxpayer’s expense is another question.”
The coalition government’s aim was to reduce civil legal aid, while retaining advice and representation for those involved in family court cases involving domestic violence or at immediate risk of losing their homes. In the end, large areas of civil legal aid were removed from legal aid coverage. These included most cases involving housing problems, family law, immigration, employment disputes and challenges to welfare benefit payments.
For full article
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jan/30/lord-mcnally-cut-legal-aid-mps-justice-system
