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Press Release

Government concession on police station advice 'far from enough'

26 January 2012

The Law Society has welcomed the Government's decision to scrap plans to introduce means-testing for initial legal advice and assistance at police stations, but the Society has said the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishing of Offenders Bill as a whole remains in disarray.

The Society, which had been calling for the means-testing for initial legal advice at police stations to be scrapped since the Bill was introduced in June 2011, has said that the Bill remains un-costed and unjust and that the Government must do more to uphold the fundamental principle of access to justice, which is under threat from parts of the legislation.

The concession was announced by the Government yesterday (Tuesday 24 January 2012) as the Bill was debated by Peers during its committee stage in the House of Lords.

Law Society chief executive Desmond Hudson said:“We acknowledge that the Government has finally realised means-testing for initial legal advice at police stations was not going to work. The question has to be asked why, with so much opposition to the move outside and within the Government, this did not happen sooner?

“While this a positive step, it is far from enough. There remain deeply contentious measures in the Bill – such as the outrageous fiddling with the definition of domestic violence so as to deny more vulnerable individuals access to legal advice.

“The Government needs to do more to make the Bill compatible with what is a given tenet of any civilised society – access to justice for all.”

The Law Society is continuing to press for further changes to the Bill as it goes through Parliament.



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