The road to LASPOLASPO:road toLASPO:road toHelp at CourtLASPO:road toLASPO:road to
2.13When the government changed in 2010, it was the outcome of an election held against the backdrop of a global economic crisis. A coalition of Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers took power on the basis that the appropriate response to the crisis, and to public expenditure deficits and government debt at home, was a programme of cuts and austerity which would impact on almost all government departments. The Ministry of Justice, by now also including prisons and probation within its remit, was no exception and was required to find savings of about £2 billion annually from its budget. It was decided that the legal aid scheme would have to be cut by about £350 million.
2.14A consultation paper was issued, to which over 5,000 (overwhelmingly negative) responses were received, proposing drastic cuts focussed primarily on civil and family legal aid. Fees would be cut, the LSC abolished and whole areas of law removed from scope.
2.15The result of the consultation was very little movement in government policy, and the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill (soon to be universally known as LASPO) was published in June 2011. For the full detail of the content of the bill and the government’s policy proposals at the time, see
www.legalaidhandbook.com/2011/07/05/legal-aid-reform-overview.
2.16The passage of the bill was marked by campaigning and lobbying across the legal aid sector and well beyond (a leading voice being the Women’s Institute, for example), together with vigorous debate particularly in the House of Lords, which met with almost total government intransigence. Some concessions were made, but LASPO was passed largely intact despite the government losing a record number of votes in the Lords.