The new justice minister has sent a conciliatory message to legal aid practitioners, pledging to make public funding a priority and to smooth relations with the Legal Aid Agency.
Heidi Alexander, the legal aid minister, said the challenge of piecing together different areas of law ‘keeps me awake at night’ and admitted the legal aid system was on ‘life support’.
Speaking at a fringe event at the Labour conference in Liverpool, Alexander parroted the line of other senior figures by saying she could not pre-empt any discussions about funding ahead of the spending review next month.
But she stressed that she was listening to lawyers who told her at the event that areas like immigration, criminal, family and housing law were all in dire need of extra investment and suggested that the justice legacy inherited by Labour had been ‘shameful’.
Alexander said: ‘I do know that access to justice for the poorest people in our society is an absolute cornerstone of our society and you have my commitment to work with the profession to find a system and way forward so everyone can find the access to justice they need.’
She added that the plummeting number of legal aid providers had been discussed by her department within the first few weeks of being in office.
‘After the prisons crisis I know that the crisis in legal aid is really a top priority for me and [justice secretary] Shabana Mahmood. I do hear the pleas you make.’
Alexander was told by panel members that the attitude of the Legal Aid Agency to law firms claiming fees was ‘antagonistic’, with officials quibbling over tiny amounts and delaying the process by which payments were made.
‘I have obviously met with the leadership and I know that [LAA chief executive] Jane Harbottle would be very worried to hear what you describe,’ replied Alexander. ‘Let us try to build some more trust into the system.’
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