Day of Action for Justice: Friday 3rd of June

Friday 3^rd June will see a day of action for Justice organised by the coalition behind the Justice for All Campaign which is calling for people to take action in a variety of ways: organising local marches; writing to MPs; writing to local newspapers; leaving a voice message to the Minister for Justice and highlighting the issues on social media. Draft letters and ideas for actions on Friday can be found here. There will be marches and meetings throughout the country and MRN will be present at outside the Supreme Court in Westminster.

It is vital to step up the pressure on an issue as fundamental as the right to access to Justice for everyone irrespective of their economic situation, a principle that is at risk. As we have pointed out in the last few months on this website, access to legal advice and representation for people on low incomes is seriously under threat through a combination of reduced public sector funding for community advice centres and the proposed reforms to the legal aid scheme. Many community advice centres have already seen their budgets slashed and their services reduced through cuts in local grants.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Justice has not yet published its response to the consultation on reforms to the legal aid scheme that supports advice and representation on a range of civil law issues, including immigration. The consultation received more than 5,000 formal responses from a wide range of stakeholders. Some of these included alternative mechanisms to make savings in the Justice system and others produced convincing  evidence that good early advice saves money in the long run.

The House of Lords has also picked up on the importance of the reforms, debating on the 19th of May the legal aid proposals. The Lords expressed concern about the effect of these proposals on several areas of civil law and cast doubt on whether it is possible or desirable for the voluntary sector to pick up the shortfall of legal aid-funded provision.

Encouraging as it may be that there is growing interest in Parliament on the future of legal advice a lot remains to be done to keep the issue on the agenda. The pressure to make budget reductions will remain and there is a risk that some sort of compromise is made where the inclusion of some areas of law in the legal aid scheme is rethought while others are left out. Those of us working on migrants’ rights need to remain active in highlighting the importance of legal advice for immigration cases. The poor record of decision making on applications and the consequences it has on individuals and families make it imperative to ensure that people with few resources can challenge bad decisions.

That is why MRN will be present at the rally on Friday outside the Supreme Court in Westminster and we encourage everybody to join this day of action in one way or another.