Authors:Legal Action Group
Created:2023-04-05
Last updated:2023-09-18
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The Law Society has
updated its heat maps showing shortages of legal aid provision in England and Wales. The maps, revised in March 2023, show further decline:
•71 per cent of the population of England and Wales do not have access to a community care legal aid provider, and there has been an 11.6 per cent drop in providers since April 2022;
•90 per cent of the population (over 53m people) have no education legal aid provider in their local authority, with a 10 per cent fall in providers since April 2022;
•84 per cent of the population do not have access to a welfare legal aid provider, with a 21 per cent drop in providers since April 2022;
•42 per cent of the population do not have access to a local housing legal aid provider, a rise of around 5 per cent since 2019; and
•66 per cent of the population do not have access to an immigration and asylum legal aid provider, with an 8.5 per cent fall in providers since April 2022.
Also in March, The Law Society launched its
21st Century Justice project, noting that ‘the justice system in England and Wales is unravelling and needs fresh ideas … many people are priced out of justice or waiting years to get it’. The project, intended to last three years, aims to ‘meet challenges in our justice system and make it fit for the future’, focusing initially on:
•power imbalances in alternative dispute resolution;
•help for small businesses and people ineligible for legal aid to meet their legal costs;
•solicitors’ role in the digitalisation of the justice system;
•big data and access to justice; and
•civil legal aid.
It will draw on the expertise of Law Society council and committee members, as well as external stakeholders and users of the justice system.