Alex Chalk: 'I'm a legal aid barrister on a career sabbatical'

Before we started, the lord chancellor made sure to tell me how keen he was to speak to the Gazette and its readers. I don’t think he minded me admitting that the last-minute invitation had been a surprise. Few of Alex Chalk's recent predecessors have shown much enthusiasm for engaging with the Gazette, so a train ride from London to Bristol to take up the opportunity was no trouble at all.

The trip to Bristol Crown Court marked the announcement of £220m over the next two years for court building work and, for the third consecutive year, a continuation of uncapped judicial sitting days in the Crown court. It’s all part of the plan to try and chip away at the persistent backlog. Though money cannot solve everything (and much more is needed) it’s as good a start as any.

Chalk made the most of any opportunity to praise colleagues still at the coalface. He said: ‘I just want to put on record my gratitude to all legal professionals, barristers, solicitors, and others, who are going to be the critical factor in delivering justice we want to see. For the record, justice means convicting the guilty ensuring the innocent walk free and protecting the public.’

He was positive about the profession, speaking of his determination to get ‘onto a much more stable footing’. He added: ‘I think we are in a much better place now so that we can start to grow the profession again which I think we are already starting to see.’

I’m not sure all our readers would agree but it’s quite clear Chalk holds the judicial system in high esteem. In our roughly eight-minute conservation he used the words ‘dignity’ and ‘respect’ eight times to describe the courts.

He said: ‘I am passionate about ensuring those resources are available across our jurisdiction so there is capacity in our court system because courts aren’t taken offline through maintenance issues but also the environment is one that reflects the respect that I and the government hold the justice system in, and also is a fitting professional environment for court users, be they judges, barristers, solicitors, HMCTS staff but also members of the public that come in as well.’

It’s a fair observation, if people lose respect for their justice system, then that’s a slippery slope.

He said: ‘We need to ensure courts have the dignity and respect required to engender compliance with … court orders. The fabric of these buildings in a small way contributes to the dignity of the law and that is an important thing not to lose sight of.’

We couldn’t meet the justice secretary and not speak about legal aid, especially when Chalk describes himself as he does.

He said: ‘Legal aid is critical. When I was legal aid minister [Sir Robert] Buckland was lord chancellor, I was one of the ministers who commissioned the Bellamy review to get to the heart of what makes a sustainable legal aid system. I consider myself to be a legal aid barrister who is on a career sabbatical at the moment, legal aid is the glue which holds our criminal justice system. It is critically important, and I am proud of the fact £144m of additional money is going into the legal aid systems.

‘It is a 15% uplift for barristers, I recognise it is a tough job. I know people do it because they believe in justice, they believe in acting for their clients, they believe in doing the right thing and being professionals. I want them to know the government is on their side, we support them, we admire them, and we want to ensure they are properly rewarded too.'

Conceding the 'outstanding issue' in respect of solicitors, he noted 'that is potentially going to be litigated so there are limits as to what I can say about that'.

‘But, so far as the barristers are concerned, we have implemented that and the other point I think is important to make is that within the Bellamy review is the understanding we do not want to go from dispute to dispute again.

‘What we want is to get this on an even keel because I absolutely recognise we get through this caseload and deliver justice for victims and witnesses if we have barristers in the right quantities and in the right expertise that we need.’

Let’s hope Chalk's time in the role is as successful as his ambition – and party – allows.