Labour to keep court fees - but cap them

A Labour government would keep court fees - but introduce a capping mechanism, a leaked draft of the party’s manifesto implies. According to the draft, leaked to the media today, ’Labour will not prohibit the courts from raising monies to provide services, but we will introduce a ratio to establish the maximum difference between actual costs and charges levied.’ Employment tribunal fees however would be scrapped. 

Labour would also restore legal aid in family cases and for the preparation of judicial review. As expected, the manifesto includes a pledge to retain the human rights act.

However, while stressing the need to tackle barriers to justice, the draft is light on the detail of reform. On the current Access to Justice Commission established by Labour peer Lord Bach (Willy Bach), the manifesto says only that: 'We will consider the recommendations.’

Noting that the justice system can be ‘bewildering and imposing’, it states that there are ’many improvements that can be made in both the law and in the court processes’.

However the draft name-checks several campaigns for inquiries into what it calls historic injustices. ’We will open inquiries into the scandaI of contaminated blood, Orgreave, blacklisting, and we will release all papers relating to the Shrewsbury 24,’ the draft states, referring to events in the 1980s miners’ strike and the imprisonment of pickets in the 1970s.  

Noting that justice is becoming the preserve of the rich, it states: 'For the ordinary man or woman, for the football fan, the striking worker, the environmental activist, the trade unionist, the disability benefit claimant; for them, for us, all too often, justice is denied and the truth is covered up.’

Elsewhere, the draft states that a Labour government would introduce a no-fault divorce procedure as well as legal aid provisions for the preparation of judicial review. ’We believe that judges should not be denied the opportunity to check excessive abuse of executive power by the establishment for the sake of a few pounds.’

The Labour Party has declined to comment on the leak.