The political world always heats up as the next general election approaches. For obvious reasons, the greatest focus at the moment is on the Labour party. It has been working through its National Policy Forum (NPF) consultation, where the deadline for submissions has now passed. The results will be reflected at the annual party conference in October, in the election manifesto and in the immediate programme for government. Promoters of better legal aid and improved civil justice have been as active as others in seeking attention from the party decision-makers.

Policymaking in the Labour party is somewhat opaque. Chances of inclusion in the manifesto depend on a range of factors that are as much intuitive as logical. In the run-up to the election, the process has been somewhat beset by confusingly different numbers. Logically at the top of the tree, we have Keir Starmer’s five missions – not to be confused with his previous, and rather different, 10 pledges. Distressingly for civil legal aid advocates, the 10 were more favourable than the five. They showed what is hopefully a continuing commitment to social justice, the promotion of human rights, the strengthening of workers’ rights and the defending of migrants’ ones.

The current five have a rather different focus: on green energy, economic growth, an improved NHS and better education. On the legal side, the only express high-level commitment on law is to make our streets safe and raise confidence in our criminal justice system. The NPF, meanwhile, is eschewing both the five and the 10 by working through six policy commissions under slightly different headings. Three might be particularly relevant to civil justice: ‘Safe and secure communities’; ‘A future where families come first’; and ‘Public services that work from the start’.

The lead body within the Labour party on legal matters is the Society of Labour Lawyers (SLL). It has certainly been on manoeuvres, arguing for a wider commitment to justice reform. Its chair reported on 9 May 2023 that: ‘This month SLL have hosted a number of events including our Access to Justice roundtable at Middle Temple with shadow justice secretary, Steve Reed MP. It was focused on the policies we need to enable access to justice for all and may have seen the birth of a National Legal Service.’ In its NPF submissions, the SLL also shoehorned a demand for better legal aid into proposals for better housing for families: ‘We propose that early legal advice should be reinstated in all areas of law … the legal aid sector needs to be adequately resourced’ (para 5).

Others have, of course, been active. The Law Society launched its 21st Century Justice project in March 2023. This is to take three years but clearly has influencing the next government well in its sights. In the same month, LAG published my and Nic Madge’s paper, The National Legal Service: a new vision for access to civil justice.1See also April 2023 Legal Action 10. You can figure that the Bar will not have been silent.

The commitment to the five missions is being articulated by Keir Starmer as rock solid: '[W]e will build our manifesto around [them] and, if elected, [they will] drive everything we do in government.' But Labour must envisage some flexibility because it also accepted the report of the Commission on the UK’s Future (A new Britain: renewing our democracy and rebuilding our economy, Labour, 2022), very much a project of Gordon Brown and one that, one would have thought, would be particularly important in relation to appealing to voters in Scotland. Its recommendations involve a major programme of constitutional change towards greater democratisation. This includes abolishing ‘the current undemocratic House of Lords’ as well as greater devolution of power: 'Across England, we recommend that every town and city is given the powers needed to draw together their own economic and social plan and take more control of their economic future’ (page 9). If carried through, this would represent a massive programme for government equal to any of the five identified missions.

Hopefully, this exclusion shows that there is hope. In other words, it may all still be to play for. We will see as we get into the autumn. But if we are to progress a commitment to more legal advice and assistance for disadvantaged people into the manifesto, we need a reform package that will appeal to the values reflected in Labour's broader statements. We certainly need to emphasise user benefit rather than professional interest. It might be helpful to feed into a prospective regional agenda – as some development of the old regional legal services committees would do if they could decide, for example, on how Manchester (or any other area) might meet its need for social welfare advice. It would be good to fold basic advice and information into the legal aid scheme by incorporating Citizens Advice and the other frontline advice agencies as a reformulation of public services. The basic idea of revamping legal aid as a National Legal Service would surely give Labour a distinctive policy coherent with its other objectives.