Time is running out to help save the criminal justice system

We are fighting for the future of the criminal justice system and we need your help.

There is just one week to go until the government’s criminal legal aid consultation closes (7 June).

Whether you are a criminal defence solicitor or work in another field, you can join the fight and help amplify our concerns by responding to the consultation over the next seven days.

The parlous state of the criminal justice system is plain for all to see. Decades of cuts and underinvestment have taken their toll. The criminal defence profession has been particularly hard hit, with no meaningful increase in criminal legal aid fees for a quarter of a century.

Court backlogs, which pre-dated the pandemic but have been exacerbated by it, mean defendants, witnesses and victims are waiting years for justice, their lives in limbo.

Much of the court estate is crumbling and there simply isn’t the capacity in terms of judges, court staff, prosecutors and defence lawyers to deal with the mountain of outstanding cases.

The number of criminal legal aid firms has almost halved in the last 15 years because the work is no longer financially viable.

The firms that remain struggle to recruit and retain staff who see other areas of the profession or even crossing the courtroom to join the Crown Prosecution Service as better for their careers and lives.

Our research shows that duty solicitors are increasingly scarce in some parts of the country and only 4% are under 35. The heavy workload, poor rates of pay and work-life balance mean few young lawyers see the profession as an attractive option.

Why does this matter you may ask?

Duty solicitors provide a vital public service attending police stations at all hours of the day and night for incredibly low rates of pay.

They are involved in cases from the earliest stage and their advice can be key in ensuring swift justice for victims and defendants.

Without a functioning criminal defence, any government plans – to recruit more police officers or better support victims – will inevitably still fail to deliver the justice system every community deserves.

We were encouraged when the UK government announced that it had finally answered the call for the first significant funding increase for criminal legal aid solicitors in 25 years.

But it soon became clear that what the government was offering was, for solicitors, well below the 15% fee increase their independent review said is needed, and which they claimed to have delivered.

In fact, on the government’s own calculations the uplift was just 9%, which is unlikely to stem the tide of firms and solicitors leaving the sector.

Remember, 15% was just the bare minimum that Sir Christopher Bellamy recommended as an immediate first step to address the crisis.

That means the government’s proposals for criminal legal aid for solicitors are 40% below the recommended bare minimum required to put the justice system on a sustainable footing.

The government has failed the justice system and has let down victims, defendants and witnesses, let alone society, which relies on an efficient and fair criminal justice system.

Unless government sees sense and urgently changes tack, solicitors will continue to leave the profession in droves, court backlogs will inevitably endure, and we will no longer have a criminal justice system worthy of the name.

We have been fighting tooth and nail on behalf of our members to get the bare minimum 15% uplift in fees, which they have waited 25 years for.

We need the legal community to come together, speak with one voice and prevent the criminal defence profession from heading towards extinction.

Please play your part and respond to the consultation here.

I. Stephanie Boyce is president of the Law Society of England and Wales