House of Lords - House of Commons - Joint Committee on Human Rights: The Implications for Access to Justice of the Government's Proposals to Reform Legal Aid - HL 100 - HC 766

Download or read book House of Lords - House of Commons - Joint Committee on Human Rights: The Implications for Access to Justice of the Government's Proposals to Reform Legal Aid - HL 100 - HC 766 written by Great Britain: Parliament: Joint Committee on Human Rights and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2013-12-13 with total page 88 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The report The Implications For Access To Justice Of The Government's Proposals To Reform Legal Aid (HL100, HC 766) concludes that the government should reconsider its proposals for the reform of legal aid. The government has so far made welcome exemptions to its proposed residence test in the light of responses to its consultation, but the Committee is still not satisfied that the proposed test will not affect vulnerable groups. While accepting that it is legitimate for the government to introduce a residence test for civil legal aid and to restrict the scope of prison law funding, the Committee calls for more and broader exemptions from these proposals to avoid breaches of the fundamental right of effective access to justice in individual cases. The exceptional funding framework may not be working as intended and could therefore leave certain groups unable to access legal aid when human rights law requires it. The proposal to remove cases with