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Speak up for Justice campaign launched
This column documents evidence of the effect of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012. Readers are invited to send in relevant information for publication. Submissions of up to 500 words will be published in full and, on request, anonymised. E-mail: vwilliams@lag.org.uk using the message title ‘Legal aid cuts impact statement’. Last month saw the launch of the nationwide Speak up for Justice campaign by the TUC and trade unions with members in the justice sector. The campaign has been initiated ‘following government reforms and spending cuts which have reduced access to justice and put public safety at risk, with further reforms to come. The government is privatising policing, probation and prison services, closing courts and slashing the legal aid budget, yet the people who use the justice system, those who work in it and the unions who represent the workforce have not been consulted.’
The TUC has invited individuals and organisations to join the campaign by signing a petition to Chris Grayling, Secretary of State for Justice, and Theresa May, the Home Secretary. The petition calls on the government ‘in the interests of access to justice and public safety’:
•to stop cuts to legal aid and protect access to efficient local justice for all;
•to halt the outsourcing of probation services and agree to pilot government reforms and payment-by-results prior to any privatisation;
•to keep prisons and prison services in public ownership, and stop the programme of prison closures; and
•to stop cuts to policing, and halt police privatisation.