More proposed changes to Legal Aid – have your say

Ref: 02.13

Further changes to criminal and civil legal aid have been announced by the Ministry of Justice.

Some of the main proposals include:

• Placing criminal legal aid contracts out to Price Competitive Tendering;
• Removing legal aid for prisoners challenging treatment, and limiting circumstances where legal aid is available for sentencing matters;
• Introducing a 12 month residency test for access to civil legal aid.
• Not granting legal aid automatically to those with a household annual disposable income in excess of £37,500.

CILEx is asking for members’ observations, comments and experiences to inform our response to the Transforming legal aid consultation, particularly in the following areas:

• From your experience, what impact will the proposed approach for limiting legal aid to those with a ‘strong connection’ with the UK have?
• From your experience, what impact will the proposal that criminal legal aid for prison law matters should be restricted to the proposed criteria have?
• How will the other proposals impact on your work, and your clients?

Please send your comments to [email protected] by Monday 13 May 2013.

You can also read comments from CILEx President, Nick Hanning on the new proposals here.