The first in-depth rights based examination of the impact of Legal Aid changes on children since 2013 shows that in 70% of private family cases one or both parties did not have legal representation. Under the ‘exceptional funding’ regime, which the Government created to ensure Legal Aid was still given to people whose human rights were at risk, only 57 grants were provided in its first year, rather than the 3,700 the Ministry of Justice had expected, due to the complexity of and strict criteria applied to the system. The findings are published today by the Office of the Children’s Commissioner in a Child Rights Impact Assessment of changes to civil and prison law Legal Aid since April 2013.
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner’s report, '
Legal aid changes since April 2013: Child Rights Impact Assessment' follows in-depth research on the effects of changes to Legal Aid. The work was done in light of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child’s recommendation that governments should assess the impact of all proposed legislation on children. Along with lawyers, charities and others working with families, the Commissioner remains concerned about the serious potential effects of changes to Legal Aid on a wide range of children’s rights. The research included interviews with children and young people affected by the changes, desk based research and legal analysis.
Key findings on the reforms include:Although ‘exceptional funding’ was meant to be available in cases where failure to fund could infringe the applicant’s rights under the Human Rights Act 1998 or under EU law, in practice this requires complex preparatory work, impractical for a child without a solicitor.
Only 57 cases were granted exceptional funding compared to the 3,700 the Ministry of Justice expected.