Bar Blog
Welcome to the Bar Council's blog page, where you will find
updates from the Chairman of the Bar and pieces from contributing
writers.
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of the Bar Council, click here. To view articles by
contributing writers, click here.
Andrew Walker QC welcomes today's Justice Select
Committee Report on Criminal Legal Aid

The Bar knows all too well about "the crisis that criminal legal
aid is facing".
As we all know, that crisis is leading to a corrosive
combination of heavy workloads and huge financial pressures for the
barristers and solicitors on whose dedication the continued
functioning of the criminal justice system depends.
Helped by very public failures to disclose relevant evidence,
and growing publicity in social media, the mainstream media, and
now in hardback print, this crisis is now becoming visible to the
public at large.
Until recently, though, it has been rare to find it recognised
in Westminster, never mind in robust and candid terms, and at a
senior level.
There are growing signs that this is changing, and that our
concerns about justice are now being received with increasing
sympathy in Parliament, and across party lines, particularly in the
committees of both Houses. Significant among those committees
is the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, chaired by Robert
Neill MP.
On 12 June, Angela Rafferty QC and I had the pleasure of giving
evidence to this Committee on the current state of criminal legal
aid in England and Wales. Some of you may have watched the session. This has led to today's
compelling report, which follows close on the
heels of the same committee's highly critical report only last week
on Disclosure of Evidence in Criminal Cases on
which I have already commented.
Both reports are worth a read, even if only in summary.
Together, they may even prove to be something of a game-changer in
Westminster.
Today's report on criminal legal aid shows clear, candid,
cross-party acceptance of what we have long been warning about:
that years of savage cuts have led us to a crisis in criminal legal
aid, which in turn threatens the future efficiency and
effectiveness of our criminal justice system. It also
recognises explicitly that the criminal justice system is
"under-funded".
This is casting a long shadow over the rule of law. It is
eroding public confidence in the ability of our justice system to
ensure that offences are prosecuted, and that the guilty are
convicted and the innocent acquitted. It also threatens our
international reputation - a reputation already at risk from the
competition and uncertainty that is feeding off Brexit.
The report includes a clarion call for both regular reviews of
the Advocates' Graduated Fee Scheme (AGFS) and an urgent
cross-departmental review of criminal justice funding. That
call must be heeded by the Government. As the Committee
urges, the review must include criminal legal aid, the funding of
the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), and the fundamental unfairness
of failing to pay for reviewing huge volumes of unused
material. But to be truly effective, it must also include the
state of prosecution fees, following cuts and years without any
adjustments for inflation. There is no justification for
paying ever dwindling fees to the dedicated professionals whose
daily struggles keep the criminal justice system going.
The report also concludes that:
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"[T]here is compelling evidence of the fragility of the Criminal
Bar and criminal defence solicitors' firms placing [the common law
right to legal advice and the European Convention right to legal
representation] at risk; we conclude that this risk can no longer
be ignored."
-
"[C]urrent difficulties in recruitment to the Criminal Bar could
potentially have a negative impact on future recruitment to, and
diversity within, the judiciary - in particular for judicial office
holders in the criminal courts."
-
"The effectiveness of the system … demands that the fabric of
the criminal courts is properly maintained."
I have expressed the hope not only that this latest report
signals a shift in political attitudes in Parliament, but that it
also leads to a decisive change in the attitude towards justice at
the highest levels in Government. Only time will tell; but
you can rest assured that we will be doing all that we can to feed
and nurture the growing pressure.
Andrew Walker QC, Chair of the Bar