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Don’t Mention the Law: 2024 election manifestos and the absence of funding for the Courts & Legal Aid

Family law Partner, Phillipa Dolan, provides her thoughts on the absence of any fresh funding for the Court system and Legal Aid in any party’s 2024 election manifesto.

2 minute read

Published 2 July 2024

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Unless you’ve been off grid for the past year, you’ll be fully aware that there is serious trouble at court. As a general rule, courts and our justice system come very low down the agenda with both the voting public and (no coincidence) with our politicians. How things have changed.

In the late 1940s, in the aftermath of war, there was a generally held view that we had to make our country a better and fairer place. And along came the Legal Aid Act 1949, described at the time as “one of the great pillars of the post-War welfare state.” Almost every civil case was included in the scheme and 80% of the population was eligible. That world disappeared completely in the first part of this century as access to justice became of little, if any, interest to our political parties.

Why has our collapsing justice system recently caught the imagination of the media, and even some members of the public? Where to start? Well, the roof fell in at Snaresbrook Crown Court recently. The Old Bailey has caught fire. There are people incarcerated in crumbling prisons for years with no clear end in sight and their cases haven’t even been heard. The backlogs are staggering. There’s virtually no legal aid available in the Civil Courts (unless you’re a victim of domestic abuse) so litigants are having to come to court unrepresented and their cases are taking much longer as a result which further exacerbates the backlog. Even more important is the reality that their understanding and ability to present their case themselves maybe all that protects them from, for example, losing their children, their house, their business – or possibly all three.

So naturally I was keen to understand how our political parties are planning to reverse this profound threat to our democracy and society. Guess what? Our politicians still don’t seem to care.

The Conservatives have lots of ideas in their manifesto for increasing prison terms and they intend to “continue to ensure access to justice through legal aid provision.” (Who knew?) )The only other reference to legal aid is a proposed extension of legal aid for bereaved families at inquests and more protection for women and girls.

The Labour Party manifesto assures us that they plan on “revising confidence in the Criminal Justice System” and introducing fast track rape cases. They’re going to strengthen rights for women in cohabiting couples (why not men?) and to speed up the process of charging domestic abuse suspects. From what I can gather from the manifesto, these changes are to be funded from existing budgets, i.e. a further cut to the already decimated system and no suggestion at all that legal aid might be reintroduced.

The Liberal Democrats say that they will be “establishing a new right to affordable, reasonable legal assistance and making the legal aid system simpler, fairer and more generous.” That does sound like progress although the chances of the Liberal Democrats forming the next government are non-existent.

There’s nothing in the manifestos of the SNP, the Greens or Reform. To be fair to Plaid Cymru, the party says it is going to ensure justice for all and make the whole legal aid field more sustainable and end legal aid desserts. Of course, that won’t help the citizens of Camberley or Salford.

Everyone talks about broken Britain but at least there is a stated intention on the part of Labour and the Conservative to invest in the NHS, our education system and defence. Why not spend a bit of money on one of the great pillars of the post-War welfare state? Rights without the means to enforce them are meaningless and the current state of our justice system shames all of us.

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Longer Reads

Don’t Mention the Law: 2024 election manifestos and the absence of funding for the Courts & Legal Aid

Family law Partner, Phillipa Dolan, provides her thoughts on the absence of any fresh funding for the Court system and Legal Aid in any party’s 2024 election manifesto.

Published 2 July 2024

Associated sectors / services

  • Family and divorce

Authors

Unless you’ve been off grid for the past year, you’ll be fully aware that there is serious trouble at court. As a general rule, courts and our justice system come very low down the agenda with both the voting public and (no coincidence) with our politicians. How things have changed.

In the late 1940s, in the aftermath of war, there was a generally held view that we had to make our country a better and fairer place. And along came the Legal Aid Act 1949, described at the time as “one of the great pillars of the post-War welfare state.” Almost every civil case was included in the scheme and 80% of the population was eligible. That world disappeared completely in the first part of this century as access to justice became of little, if any, interest to our political parties.

Why has our collapsing justice system recently caught the imagination of the media, and even some members of the public? Where to start? Well, the roof fell in at Snaresbrook Crown Court recently. The Old Bailey has caught fire. There are people incarcerated in crumbling prisons for years with no clear end in sight and their cases haven’t even been heard. The backlogs are staggering. There’s virtually no legal aid available in the Civil Courts (unless you’re a victim of domestic abuse) so litigants are having to come to court unrepresented and their cases are taking much longer as a result which further exacerbates the backlog. Even more important is the reality that their understanding and ability to present their case themselves maybe all that protects them from, for example, losing their children, their house, their business – or possibly all three.

So naturally I was keen to understand how our political parties are planning to reverse this profound threat to our democracy and society. Guess what? Our politicians still don’t seem to care.

The Conservatives have lots of ideas in their manifesto for increasing prison terms and they intend to “continue to ensure access to justice through legal aid provision.” (Who knew?) )The only other reference to legal aid is a proposed extension of legal aid for bereaved families at inquests and more protection for women and girls.

The Labour Party manifesto assures us that they plan on “revising confidence in the Criminal Justice System” and introducing fast track rape cases. They’re going to strengthen rights for women in cohabiting couples (why not men?) and to speed up the process of charging domestic abuse suspects. From what I can gather from the manifesto, these changes are to be funded from existing budgets, i.e. a further cut to the already decimated system and no suggestion at all that legal aid might be reintroduced.

The Liberal Democrats say that they will be “establishing a new right to affordable, reasonable legal assistance and making the legal aid system simpler, fairer and more generous.” That does sound like progress although the chances of the Liberal Democrats forming the next government are non-existent.

There’s nothing in the manifestos of the SNP, the Greens or Reform. To be fair to Plaid Cymru, the party says it is going to ensure justice for all and make the whole legal aid field more sustainable and end legal aid desserts. Of course, that won’t help the citizens of Camberley or Salford.

Everyone talks about broken Britain but at least there is a stated intention on the part of Labour and the Conservative to invest in the NHS, our education system and defence. Why not spend a bit of money on one of the great pillars of the post-War welfare state? Rights without the means to enforce them are meaningless and the current state of our justice system shames all of us.

Associated sectors / services

  • Family and divorce

Authors

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