Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Accepted
MoJ failed to adequately assess wider cross-government impacts of legal aid reforms
Recommendation
When this Committee looked at legal aid in 2015, it noted the lack of analysis MoJ had undertaken of the wider impacts of the reforms on itself and other government departments and stressed that MoJ needed to do more. At the time, MoJ told the Committee that it was not possible to know what the wider impact of the reforms might be outside of the Ministry. However, there were already indications at that time from organisations that costs may have shifted elsewhere. For example, a survey of GPs indicated that GPs had noticed an increase in patients who would have benefited from legal advice on social welfare issues. The number of people representing themselves in court (litigants-in- person) had also increased, but MoJ lacked reliable data on the impact of this on courts.50
Government Response Summary
The MoJ will engage with other government departments regarding the impact of legal aid policy changes and has begun discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
5. PAC conclusion: The Ministry of Justice has still not made sufficient progress in identifying or addressing wider system costs of its legal aid reforms. 5. PAC recommendation: The Committee recognises that it will not be possible to calculate a precise figure of the costs of the reforms to other areas of government and the justice system. However, the Ministry of Justice should set out in its Treasury Minute response: • how it plans to work with other government departments such as Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities and the Department of Health and Social Care to better understand where reforms may have led to cost-shunting and the potential scale of these costs. This should include looking at the extent to which local authorities are funding immigration legal advice; and • how it intends to work with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to improve available quantitative analysis on the impacts of litigants-in-person on the administration of justice, as recommended in the PAC’s 2015 report. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 5.2 The MoJ engages with other government departments as to where changes in legal aid policy may impact on them, including where they may have led to ‘cost-shunting’. MoJ has begun discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government