Committee says proposed legal aid cuts may breach human rights

Chris Grayling is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing, the chair of an influential all-party backbench committee has suggested. Oscar Wilde's cynical jibe was twice put to the justice secretary when he gave evidence to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on 26 November and was then repeated by Dr Hywel Francis, a Labour MP, when he launched its report today.

The committee of MPs and peers examined three restrictions on legal aid that Grayling is in the process of introducing: removing civil legal aid for people who have not been resident in England and Wales for a year, limiting the scope of criminal legal aid for prisoners and refusing legal aid in cases assessed as having a "borderline" prospect of success.

"We are surprised that the government does not appear to accept that its proposals to reform legal aid engage the fundamental common law right of effective access to justice, including legal advice when necessary," the committee said. "We believe that there is a basic constitutional requirement that legal aid should be available to make access to court possible in relation to important and legally complex disputes, subject to means and merits tests and other proportionate limitations."

In a report that is clearly the product of political compromise, the committee accepted that restricting legal aid to those with a year's residence (subject to some exceptions) was not, as such, incompatible with their human rights. However, the MPs and peers added, even measures that served a legitimate aim were capable of breaching human rights if they were too widely drawn.

"We are particularly worried about the impact of the residence test on vulnerable groups such as children or victims of domestic violence," Francis explained.

Similarly, the committee acknowledged that complaints by prisoners about their treatment could be dealt with through an internal ombudsman system. "However, we do not accept that individuals who have suffered abuse whilst being detained by the state, so as to breach article 3, should not be eligible for legal aid in order to pursue compensation."

The committee was concerned that prisoners with mental health problems and mothers with babies in prison might not be able to use the internal complaints system. It also called on the government to put the prison ombudsman scheme onto a statutory basis, with guaranteed independence, "as a matter of urgency". And it said that housing claims by young offenders should remain within the scope of legal aid.

Turning to borderline claims, the committee told ministers they could not rely on the law as currently operated to provide practical and effective access to justice. It recommended that the government should retain the discretion to allow funding for exceptional claims.

(2013-12-13/theguardian)