The Draft Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (Amendment of Schedule 1) Order 2014 (“the Order”) will give effect to the Government’s decision to restrict access to legal aid for persons with less than 12 months lawful residence. The Fifth Delegated Legislation Committee will consider the Order on 1 July 2014, with […]
Proposed restrictions on legal aid for judicial review
May 18, 2014
The Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No 3) Regulations 2014 (“the Regulations”) will give effect to the Government’s decision to significantly restrict access to legal aid for judicial review applications. JUSTICE is concerned that – in light of the significant constitutional function of judicial review – these changes are unnecessary and ill-considered. They will, in […]
Peers to debate judicial review cuts
May 2, 2014
On 7 May 2014 – next Wednesday – the House of Lords will debate a Motion to Regret the Civil Legal Aid (Remuneration) (Amendment) (No 3) Regulations 2014 (“the Regulations”), tabled by Lord Pannick QC. JUSTICE has today written to all Peers urging them to support Lord Pannick’s Motion to Regret. The Regulations were laid […]
Care Bill
May 1, 2014
JUSTICE joins with a coalition of organisations to support amendment of the Care Bill to clarify that all publicly funded or arranged care services should be considered a public function for the purposes of Section 6 of the Human Rights Act. In May, the Government accepted the case and made their own amendments to the […]
Unjustified judicial review reforms restrict access to justice
April 30, 2014
JUSTICE welcomes a Report published today, by the Joint Committee on Human Rights (“JCHR”) – an influential cross-party Committee of MPs and Peers – which concludes that the Government’s proposals to reform judicial review and limit legal aid for public law challenges may be incompatible with access to justice and endanger the rule of law. […]
Unjustified judicial review reforms restrict access to justice
JUSTICE welcomes critical JCHR Report In a Report published today, Joint Committee on Human Rights (“JCHR”) – an influential cross-party Committee of MPs and Peers – concludes that the Government’s proposals to reform judicial review and limit legal aid for public law challenges are incompatible with access to justice and endanger the rule of law. […]
Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill
April 20, 2014
In general terms, we welcome the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Bill as a means of bringing forward reforms to the Scottish criminal justice system, particularly to amend changes brought about through the emergency legislation hastily enacted in response to the Cadder case, in which we intervened, that recognised the right of access to a lawyer during […]
NGOs question scope of new torture inquiry
April 7, 2014
JUSTICE – together with a number of other NGOs – has written to the Foreign Secretary to ask how the Government can justify passing the responsibility for the inquiry into the treatment of detainees – formerly under the supervision of Sir Peter Gibson – to the Intelligence and Security Committee (“ISC”). The signatories to the […]
Detainee Torture Inquiry
JUSTICE – together with a number of other NGOs – has written to the Foreign Secretary to ask how the Government can justify passing the responsibility for the inquiry into the treatment of detainees – formerly under the supervision of Sir Peter Gibson – to the Intelligence and Security Committee (“ISC”). Read the joint NGO […]
New cuts to legal aid for judicial review
March 24, 2014
Proposed restrictions to legal aid for judicial review claims are unnecessary and ill-considered. Because of the way in which the Regulations have been put forward, they may not even be debated in Parliament. JUSTICE is calling on individual MPs and Peers to table motions against the reform. On 14 March, the Ministry of Justice published […]