GMLC campaign volunteer lead Avaia Nightingale Williams summarises the findings of the Bar Council’s 2024 report on public funding of the justice system, ‘Justice Short-Changed‘.
The Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders (LASPO) Act 2012 brought inordinate cuts and attacks on the justice system. Now, a sobering assessment of the state of justice funding over the past decade has been produced by the Bar Council. The report shows that while the UK economy has grown, funding for the justice system has been slashed, leaving access to justice under serious threat.
The Bar Council has long maintained that the justice system should be treated as an essential public service, and recently commented on the impacts of legal aid cuts over the past decade. This particularly affects those who need free advice to uphold their basic human rights, such as the right to shelter or freedom from discrimination. And yet, instead of being treated as the backbone of a functioning democracy, the justice system has been systematically and ruthlessly underfunded, with real per person spending dropping by 22.4% from 2009/10 to 2022/23 despite economic growth of 11.5%.
A Justice System in Decline
Those working within the justice system will already be uncomfortably familiar with the consequences of these cuts. Crumbling courts, leaky roofs, and outdated facilities have become symbols of a system in decline. Legal aid firms are closing their doors because fees are so low that firms cannot afford to stay open, leading to many legal aid practitioners leaving the profession. Individuals are increasingly forced to represent themselves, navigating complex legal procedures without the assistance they need.
The report shows that between 2009/10 and 2022/3, real per-person spending on legal aid has fallen by nearly 40%. This is felt most acutely by those who need help the most: families facing child custody disputes, individuals challenging unlawful treatment at work or in their housing situations, and those defending themselves against criminal charges.
These cuts are not just a failure of policy, they represent fundamental neglect of one of the cornerstones of democracy. Justice is not something we can afford to deprioritise – it is a basic human right. When the system is starved, it is the vulnerable who suffer.
Justice Falling Behind
Whilst funding for prisons, courts, and the CPS has seen ‘modest’ increases, this is largely due to investments in the Court Reform Programme. Even this investment, however, has not yet yielded the benefits it promised, with overall per person spending on justice being 30.4% lower than where it would need to be to keep pace with needs.
By comparison, the government spends far more per person on other areas such as defence (£820), education (£1,550), and transport (£640). At just £181 per person in 2022/23, justice spending is just 1% of the amount spent per person.
Notably, the areas that have received increased funding are those that deal with prosecutions and imprisonment, serving the government’s own operational needs. Meanwhile, vital services which directly impact individuals seeking housing, employment, or benefits advice continue to face devastating cuts. This selective approach to funding leaves the public’s access to justice severely under-resourced, reinforcing the call for urgent change.
The Bar Council is calling for a change in direction, arguing that justice should be funded in line with economic growth. If spending had kept pace with the economy, the justice system would have been allocated an additional £3.5 billion by 2022/23, funding that could have addressed many of the current issues faced by the system.
A Call to Action
Justice Short-Changed is not just a report about statistics, it is a call to action.
The Bar Council’s message is clear: it is time for the government to recognise that justice is not a residual public service, something to be deprioritised in times of financial constraint; it is fundamental to society’s functioning and should be treated as such. If we are to preserve the integrity of the justice system, we must act now.
This latest report is not an outlier. It joins several similar reports, each painting the same troubling picture. The message to the new government should be unmistakable – fix the justice system before the damage becomes irreversible.
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Avaia is a soon to be pupil barrister and GMLC’s Employment Campaign Volunteer Lead. If you are interested in working with GMLC on increasing access to justice, either as a campaigner, practitioner or on an organisational level, you can email us at development@gmlaw.org.uk.
Image credit: Chris Beckett, Flickr, 2014. From the ‘Save Legal Aid’ protest, Westminster, London.
