By Tony O’Reilly-
The Lord Chancellor is failing in a fundamental statutory duty to ensure access to justice, according to a damning report by the House of Commons Justice Select Committee, which concludes that England and Wales’ legal aid system has reached a critical point.
The cross-party inquiry presents one of the bleakest assessments of legal aid in recent years, warning that years of underinvestment have left both criminal and civil legal aid in a state of profound decline, creating what MPs describe as an “unacceptably high risk” of miscarriages of justice.
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The committee’s report argues that legal aid, a cornerstone of the justice system designed to ensure that individuals of limited means can enforce their legal rights, is no longer functioning as Parliament intended. Chaired by Labour MP Andy Slaughter, the committee found widespread evidence that the system is failing those who depend upon it, with severe shortages of legal aid providers, outdated financial eligibility rules, and remuneration levels that have become economically unsustainable for lawyers and law firms.
The report concludes that these systemic failures amount to a breach of the Lord Chancellor’s statutory obligation under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) to secure the availability of legal aid in accordance with the Act.
The statutory duty imposed upon the Lord Chancellor is more than a political commitment; it is a legal responsibility. Section 1 of LASPO requires the Lord Chancellor to “secure that legal aid is made available” in accordance with the legislation. Although successive governments have retained discretion over funding levels and policy priorities, the Justice Select Committee concludes that the current state of legal aid demonstrates that this duty is not being fulfilled in practice. The committee points to the deteriorating availability of legal services across multiple areas of law as compelling evidence that the system is no longer capable of providing effective access to justice for those who qualify.
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The report paints a particularly stark picture of criminal legal aid. MPs describe the criminal duty solicitor scheme as being in a “dire state”, warning that it faces an uncertain future unless urgent reforms are implemented. The criminal legal aid workforce has been shrinking for years as experienced practitioners retire and fewer young lawyers choose careers in publicly funded defence work due to low remuneration. The committee warns that targeted increases in police station fees, while welcome, will not be sufficient to secure the long-term sustainability of the duty solicitor scheme.
A key criticism concerns the criminal legal aid means test, which has remained effectively frozen since 2009 despite years of inflation and rising wages. As a result, the committee notes that someone earning the national minimum wage may now exceed the financial eligibility threshold for legal aid in the magistrates’ courts.
This leaves many defendants caught in an impossible position: financially ineligible for legal aid yet unable to afford private legal representation. Such individuals may be forced to represent themselves in criminal proceedings, potentially undermining the fairness of trials and increasing pressure on already overstretched courts.
The committee also concludes that the wider criminal legal aid sector has become financially unsustainable. It argues that the £135 million annual investment recommended by Sir Christopher Bellamy in his Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid, published in 2021 as the first stage of rebuilding the sector, is now outdated due to continued inflation and the prolonged erosion of legal aid funding. Bellamy’s review warned that criminal legal aid had reached a tipping point, but MPs now believe the financial position has deteriorated even further since those recommendations were made.
Civil legal aid is facing equally serious challenges. The committee found that fee rates paid to providers are “fundamentally uneconomical”, making it increasingly difficult for law firms and not-for-profit organisations to continue offering publicly funded services. While recent government fee uplifts for housing and immigration work have been introduced, MPs conclude that these measures are “too little, too late” to reverse years of decline or prevent further contraction in the provider base.
One of the most significant findings concerns the widening “justice gap” created by frozen civil legal aid eligibility thresholds. Because financial eligibility has failed to keep pace with inflation and rising living costs, many people on modest incomes are excluded from legal aid despite being unable to afford private legal advice. The consequences are particularly acute in areas such as housing, family law, immigration and welfare benefits, where legal advice can determine whether individuals lose their homes, remain separated from their children or are able to secure basic legal protections.
The committee heard evidence that some survivors of domestic abuse are forced to face alleged perpetrators in court without legal representation because they earn marginally above the legal aid threshold while still being unable to afford private lawyers. Others facing eviction or serious immigration issues simply have nowhere to turn because there are no legal aid providers operating within reasonable travelling distance. In many parts of England and Wales, so-called “legal aid deserts” have emerged, leaving entire communities without practical access to publicly funded legal advice.
Historically, legal aid has long been regarded as one of the pillars supporting the rule of law in England and Wales. The modern legal aid system was established under the Legal Aid and Advice Act 1949 in the post-war period, reflecting the principle that justice should be available regardless of wealth. Over subsequent decades, legal aid became an essential safeguard ensuring that ordinary citizens could enforce their rights against both private individuals and the state.
However, substantial reductions introduced through LASPO in 2012 removed many areas of civil law from the scope of legal aid and significantly restricted eligibility. Critics have argued for years that these reforms created barriers to justice, while the current parliamentary report suggests the cumulative impact has now reached crisis proportions.
The Justice Select Committee warns that the consequences extend far beyond financial hardship for legal professionals. A justice system without sufficient legal representation carries serious constitutional implications. Courts increasingly face litigants appearing without lawyers, proceedings take longer to conclude, judicial resources are placed under greater strain, and the quality of decision-making may suffer where complex legal arguments are not properly presented. Most significantly, the committee warns that the deterioration of criminal defence provision creates an “unacceptably high risk” of miscarriages of justice, threatening public confidence in the integrity of the legal system itself.
The report is also highly critical of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA), describing its organisational structure as “deficient”. MPs found that providers were not adequately compensated for additional administrative burdens arising from the cyber-attack that disrupted the agency’s systems. Practitioners reported increased workloads, delayed payments and operational difficulties that compounded the financial pressures already facing legal aid providers. The committee concludes that reform of the LAA is necessary if the system is to regain the confidence of practitioners.
To address these issues, MPs have made 58 recommendations aimed at rebuilding legal aid. These include raising both criminal and civil financial eligibility thresholds to reflect modern living costs, introducing targeted interventions in areas suffering critical shortages of legal aid providers, implementing further fee increases alongside an independent pay review mechanism to prevent future erosion of remuneration, and reforming the objectives and governance of the Legal Aid Agency to improve efficiency and accountability.
The report has prompted strong reactions across the legal profession. Law Society President Mark Evans said the findings lay bare the consequences of sustained underinvestment in legal aid and argued that the government’s response would be a crucial test of its commitment to ensuring that the justice system works effectively for everyone.
Julie Bishop, Director of the Law Centres Network, said the committee had confirmed what frontline organisations witness daily: millions of people trapped in a widening justice gap, unable either to qualify for legal aid or afford private legal advice.
She highlighted the reality that some individuals must survive on as little as £9 per day after housing costs to remain eligible for civil legal aid, while survivors of domestic abuse are sometimes forced to appear in court unrepresented despite being in low-paid employment.
Professional bodies have also called for reforms to expand the legal workforce. CILEX President Sara Fowler urged the government to remove barriers preventing suitably qualified CILEX lawyers from joining the police station duty solicitor scheme, arguing that widening access to the profession could help alleviate growing shortages in criminal defence services.
Responding to the committee’s findings, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson acknowledged the importance of legal aid in ensuring access to justice for vulnerable people. The government pointed to its investment of £116 million in criminal legal aid solicitor fees and an additional £20 million annually for the civil legal aid sectors under greatest pressure. Ministers said they were carefully considering the Justice Select Committee’s findings and would publish a full response in due course.
The committee’s report nevertheless represents one of the strongest parliamentary criticisms yet of the legal aid system and of the government’s stewardship of it. By concluding that the Lord Chancellor is failing to discharge a statutory duty imposed by Parliament itself, MPs have elevated concerns about legal aid beyond questions of policy and funding into the realm of constitutional accountability. The committee is at pains to stress that nothing less than the principle that equal justice under the law should be available to all rather than only to those who can afford to pay for it.
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