The Court of Appeal has ruled that cuts to legal aid for prisoners are unlawful ([2017] EWCA Civ 244). The judgment was released last month, after a challenge was brought by the Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prisoners’ Advice Service to changes to legal aid that came into force from December 2013.

Laura Janes, head of the legal department at the Howard League and vice-chair of LAG, welcomed the ruling as ‘a powerful testament to the ability of the courts to strike down decisions that result in systemic unfairness’. She pointed out that the cuts, which were introduced by Chris Grayling when he was Secretary of State for Justice, ‘were unfair and counterproductive’ as they created barriers for the ‘safe progression of prisoners through the system at a time when prison conditions were rapidly deteriorating’.

Prior to the judgment, said the Howard League, the government had already conceded on four points of concern. Since the changes were introduced, which excluded prisoners from legal aid for advice on most legal problems including pre-tariff reviews by the Parole Board, the two charities had experienced a 50 per cent increase in calls to their helplines. They also argued that the incidents of violence and self-injury in prisons had increased since December 2013.

In the judgment, Lord Justice Beatson said: ‘[A]t a time when … the evidence about prison staffing levels, the current state of prisons, and the workload of the Parole Board suggests that the system is under considerable pressure, the system has at present not got the capacity sufficiently to fill the gap in the run of cases in those three areas’ (para 146).