Legal aid in Rochdale slashed

Legal aid in Rochdale has been slashed dramatically over the last six years, according to the latest figures from the BBC Shared Data Unit.

Sourced from data provided by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), cuts to the legal aid budget in England and Wales are creating ‘advice deserts’ across the country as local solicitors, not-for-profits and charities close their doors – and a similar bleak picture is painted in Rochdale.

Legal aid has existed since 1949 to ensure those who cannot afford legal advice or representation can access the justice system in their time of need and is administered through contracts put out to tender by the Legal Aid Agency.

Contracts such as housing and debt are based on 135 ‘procurement areas’ not local authorities. Others, such as welfare, cover much larger areas of England and Wales.

In the Rochdale procurement area, two contracts each for debt and housing and nine contracts for family serve the Borough.

However, for the wider areas of north and north west, the contracts drop to just one, or even zero offering help locally.

Despite there being 24 north west contracts for actions against the police, 12 for public law, 17 for clinical negligence and eight for community care, none of these serve the local area.

Of the 18 north west contracts for mediation, one serves the Rochdale borough, and of the 53 northern mental health, and 22 welfare contracts, just one apiece serves us locally.

The Ministry of Justice has seen its budget reduced by more than 40% since the financial crash, falling from almost £11bn to £6.3bn, with a further £300m of cuts by 2018-19 confirmed in October’s budget.

Additionally, The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) heralded cuts to the provision of legal aid across the country.

In Rochdale, civil law expenditure has reduced by £3,653,510 from £4,278,238 in 2011/12 to £1,996,100 in 2017/18, whilst spending on criminal law also reduced by £1,057,858 from £3,072,026 to £2,014,167 for the same time period.

LASPO effectively removed legal aid from areas of civil law including family, employment, welfare benefits, housing, debt, clinical negligence and non-asylum immigration law matters.

For those areas where legal aid remained, LASPO removed automatic eligibility for those in receipt of means-tested benefits, and lowered the means test to qualify.

At a stroke, this also reduced the funding available for solicitors and not-for-profit advice networks.

Legal aid firms have received around £450m less in payments since LASPO, as around a million fewer people each year received assistance.

Steve Hynes, director of Legal Action Group, said: “Firms are pulling out of legal aid work. It is quite shocking when you see areas with no coverage or just one supplier.

“While there are around 1,800 family law providers, especially in some small market towns, there is only one legal aid firm. This can lead to difficulties with conflicts of interests as the firm cannot act for more than one party in a case.

“For many people across the country getting help from a legal aid lawyer comes down to a postcode lottery which they are destined to lose.

“It is not like the NHS where there is an obligation to ensure there are people out there to provide a service, because it has mainly been procured in the private sector.

“We do everything we can to put pressure on the government to recognise this problem.

“If a family loses their home, the problems spiral. They will have debt problems and the local authority may take their children into care.

“Having access to civil legal advice is one of the checks and balances in the system to make sure it delivers what it is supposed to deliver.

“People with legal problems become invisible to the state, but the reality is they will pitch up in some other part of public services, whether street homeless or social services. They end up costing the state more.

“One of the most striking statistics is welfare benefits. The number of suppliers nationally has gone down to 75, because that was one of the biggest hits in scope.

“We know with the changeover to Universal Credit there are massive numbers of people with problems they need advice on.”

Rosie Brighthouse, lawyer at Liberty, added: “Since LASPO passed, it has become extremely difficult for normal people to access legal advice on really important matters such as housing and employment rights.

“These shocking statistics reveal the extent of the crisis we are seeing across the country as a result of legal aid cuts.”