Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

Publication of the second Annual Report of the Legal Aid Agency might be thought to be an opportunity to find out in a bit more detail about what is happening to Legal Aid, following implementation of the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Those expecting such information will be very disappointed. The bulk of the Annual Report details how various business targets have or have not been met during the year under review. The report is thus about administrative and operational outcomes, rather than giving a view of how citizens are (or are not) being assisted by legal aid.

The Annual Report appeared on the same day as a much shorter summary by the Director of Legal Aid of issues that had come up during the same reporting year. This is also very general in tone – though it does mention a couple of cases that went to the Court of Appeal – and is more about the process of dealing with cases than anything else.

All the details on the current operation of the legal aid scheme is now put into quarterly statistical reports. The next is due at the end of June 2015. I will report on these in due course. But I very much regret that the reporting strategy of the former Legal Services Commission – which used to run legal aid – which included the key statistical headlines and provided a commentary on how the scheme was working for the public has not been continued.

To see the 2nd Annual Report go to https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/legal-aid-agency-annual-report-and-accounts-2014-to-2015

The Director of Legal Aid Case Work’s Report is at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/director-of-legal-aid-casework-annual-report-2014-to-2015