Delegates at the Liberal Democrat party conference in Glasgow have voted to oppose further cuts to legal aid until it can be proved that there will be no adverse effect upon access to justice.
This will be something of a blow to their coalition partners, the Conservative party, who have pledged to reduce the legal aid bill by £220m annually by 2018, although it is likely to have more of a symbolic than dramatic effect on the proposals.
The motion was passed with few objections and called for “proposed changes to criminal or civil legal aid to be stayed pending thorough consultation and scrutiny to ensure there will be no adverse effect upon … access to justice and the availability of local justice”.
It also condemned the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) “unsustainable model for price competitive tendering of criminal defence services”, a mechanism that Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has already renounced in the face of overwhelming opposition from solicitors and lobby groups.
Previous Liberal Democrat conferences have opposed secret courts, but failed to prevent the Justice and Security Act, which allowed some civil proceedings to be held in private over matters of national security.
The justice minister in charge of legal aid reforms, Lord McNally, a Liberal Democrat, told the conference that party members needed to face some “hard facts” and establish a stable level for legal aid in the future.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that law centres are turning away clients whose legal aids claims are no longer supported or are being forced to introduce fees to avoid closure.
Law centres across the country are either closing or shedding staff, with Birmingham Law Centre closing in June and housing charity Shelter closing nine of its advice offices in March.