The provision of quality legal services for individuals with insecure status is woefully inadequate, as Helen O’Nions explains
The Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) ushered in a sustained assault on civil legal aid, notably in the field of immigration and asylum law. The removal from scope of all immigration work and the reduced fee regime for asylum work have created a number of problems for vulnerable clients and providers.
The government’s expectation that any unmet need could be addressed by the not-for-profit sector has been dramatically undermined by austerity policies, which have seen the number of not-for-profits providing legal services reduce by half since 2010.
The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) post-implementation review of LASPO, published in February 2019, heard evidence from over 100...
home secretary Priti Patel has attempted to reframe access to justice as a privilege
