Cuts to legal aid will create a further barrier for women trying to leave violent relationships and could lead to more deaths, the Women’s Institute has warned.
The institute published a report, Legal Aid is a Lifeline, this week as the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill returned to the House of Commons for its report stage and third reading.
The institute urged the government to amend the bill to provide legal aid to domestic violence victims, and broaden the definition of domestic violence and eligibility criteria.
On the same day, the Law Society published a report Missing Millions, claiming the government’s £350m legal aid cuts are based on ‘flawed assumptions’. It cast doubt on whether the savings will be realised and suggested the cuts will lead to higher costs for the taxpayer.
The report said: ‘The social consequences of the legal aid bill, in terms of miscarriages of justice and barriers to people seeking remedies for harms that are no fault of their own, are disproportionate to the savings that can be achieved by withdrawing civil legal aid from 645,000 cases a year.’
On Monday, MPs voted down opposition amendments on the domestic violence provisions, and after lengthy speeches from coalition MPs the house did not have time to debate the cuts to social welfare law.
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