Grayling ignores pleas to delay legal aid cuts

Chris Grayling has ignored pleas by the joint committee on human rights (JCHR) and the Law Society for a delay in his programme of legal aid cuts.

The JCHR, chaired by Welsh-speaking Labour MP Hywel Francis, announced last month that he had launched an inquiry into the implications of the further cuts in civil legal aid demanded by Grayling.

The committee said it had written to the government asking it not to implement them until after its hearings in October and publication of a report later in the year.

However, in a letter to Law Society president Nick Fluck earlier this month, Grayling said: "I will work with the JCHR and consider its findings alongside and in addition to the analysis that my officials are undertaking and that is currently well under way, but I will not be able to delay the Transforming Legal Aid timetable."

He said: "The decision to accelerate the next tranche of legal aid reforms was taken because of the acute need to continue to bear down on the costs of legal aid against a backdrop of continuing pressure on public finances, and to address questions of public confidence in the legal aid scheme."

The justice secretary said that together with the government's response to the original Transforming Legal Aid consultation this autumn, there would be a "short period of further consultation on certain changes to the current proposals".

Among these are the decision not to remove choice of solicitor from criminal defendants, announced at the justice select committee at the start of last month, and an exemption for babies aged less than 12 months from the civil legal aid residency test.

However, Grayling has strongly defended restrictions on judicial review, cuts to legal aid for prisoners and the removal of legal aid from 'borderline cases'.

The JCHR has issued a call for written evidence on the human rights implications of the cuts, which can be submitted directly online through the committee's portal by 27 September.

In a separate development, UK Uncut, which campaigns against cuts to public services through direct action, is organising a protest against the legal aid cuts on Saturday 5 October.