ATLEU’s response to the National Audit Office consultation on legal aid
/ATLEU’s submission to the National Audit Office consultation on legal aid is informed by our day to day experience of undertaking specialist casework for trafficking and modern slavery, and the experiences shared with us by survivors, frontline support and advocacy organisations, civil society organisations, and legal aid providers.
The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) has had a devastating impact on the legal aid sector. It removed many social welfare matters from the scope of legal aid, thus delaying access for many other matters until crisis point. The change in the type of cases covered by legal aid forced services to move away from holistic advice that also enabled organisations providing legal aid services to be financially sustainable from the balance of work carried out. The impact of LASPO, together with other legal aid cuts, the year on year depreciation in fees, and the impact of austerity, has had a catastrophic impact on the legal aid sector. Since LASPO’s introduction, half of all law centres and not-for-profit legal advice services in England and Wales have closed, according to government figures.
There is a legal advice crisis for victims and survivors of trafficking and modern slavery. There is a huge gulf between demand for legal advice and available supply. Survivors are not able to access timely and quality legally aided advice and representation when they need it, with devastating consequences.
The primary cause of the legal advice crisis for trafficking and modern slavery survivors is the way in which these cases are funded. Trafficking and modern slavery cases are uniquely complex, long-running and costly, and as such are ill-suited to payment by standard legal aid fixed fees which do not change to reflect the time taken or level or work carried out. The legal aid billing process for immigration cases is the most complex in civil legal aid at controlled work level and hugely burdensome for providers.
ATLEU is calling for:
Immigration legal advice on trafficking and modern slavery cases to be paid on an hourly rate basis and rates for civil legal aid raised to a sustainable level
An efficient, streamlined process for opening, reporting and billing legal aid matters should replace the overly complex, burdensome bureaucracy that deters so many legal aid providers.
Survivors of trafficking and modern slavery to receive non-means tested legal aid
Legal aid to be available for all survivors of trafficking and modern slavery in the following areas that are currently ‘out of scope’: pre-NRM immigration advice; advice on identification as a victim of trafficking and modern slavery; and advice on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme
Read our full response to the National Audit Office consultation on legal aid
Read our 2022 report on the legal advice crisis for survivors of trafficking and modern slavery
