The Right to Justice: Final Report of the Bach Commission

In September 2017, the Bach Commission (chaired by Lord Willy Bach) published its report on the Right to Justice. The Commission was established at the end of 2015 to find solutions that will restore access to justice as a fundamental public entitlement.

The commission found that the justice system is in crisis. Most immediately, people are being denied access to justice because the scope of legal aid has been dramatically reduced and eligibility requirements made excessively stringent. But problems extend very widely through the justice system, from insufficient public legal education and a shrinking information and advice sector to unwieldy and creaking bureaucratic systems and uncertainty about the future viability of the practice of legal aid practitioners.

Covering many of the same issues as the Low Commission (which reported in 2014) this report makes the following specific recommendations.

The commission has concluded that the problems in the justice system are so wide-spread that there is a need for a new legally enforceable right to justice, as part of a new Right to Justice Act. This Act would:

codify existing rights to justice and establish a new right for individuals to receive reasonable legal assistance without costs they cannot afford;
establish a set of principles to guide interpretation of this new right covering the full spectrum of legal support, from information and advice through to legal representation;
establish a new body – the Justice Commission – to monitor and enforce this new right.

The purpose of the Right to Justice Act is to create a new legal framework that will, over time, transform access to justice.

In addition, early government action is also required.

Legal aid eligibility rules must be reformed, so that the people currently unable either to access legal aid or to pay for private legal help can exercise their right to justice.
The scope of civil legal aid, which has been radically reduced, must be reviewed and extended. In particular, all matters concerning children should be brought back into the scope of legal aid.
An independent body that operates the legal aid system at arm’s length from government should replace the Legal Aid Agency and action must be taken to address the administrative burdens that plague both the public and providers.
Public legal capability must be improved through a national public legal education and advice strategy that improves the provision of information, education and advice in schools and in the community.

My own view is that there is a growing consensus that the cuts to legal aid have gone too far. I have doubts whether there will be a wholesale return to the legal aid system that existed before the programme of cuts that has been going on for the best part of a decade.

This is potentially an important area of policy making. However, when considering new policies:

more attention should be given to new ways of delivering legal services, embracing new technologies that would allow more to be provided for less;
greater consideration of alternative sources of funding for the provision of legal advice and assistance, especially through different forms of insurance;
the legal needs of small and medium size business should be treated as seriously as the legal needs of individuals, and
there should be a recognition that there is scope for ‘do-it-yourself’ lawyering.

The Bach report may be downloaded from http://www.fabians.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Bach-Commission_Right-to-Justice-Report-WEB.pdf

The Report of the Low Commission is at https://www.lowcommission.org.uk/dyn/1389221772932/Low-Commission-Report-FINAL-VERSION.pdf together with a follow up report, published in 2015 at https://www.lowcommission.org.uk/dyn/1435772523695/Getting_it_Right_Report_web.pdf