Low Commission: winding down but not giving up
After nearly three-and-a-half years and with what its chairman, cross-bench peer Lord Colin Low, describes as an ‘unfinished agenda’, the Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support is winding up. Catherine Baksi assesses its impact and achievements.
‘The work of the Low Commission has been exemplary – it has worked with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.’
Established in 2012 by Legal Action Group, the Low Commission represented the biggest inquiry of its kind into the impact of the funding cuts for social welfare law, following the introduction of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012. Funded by the Baring Foundation, Barrow Cadbury Trust, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, Lankelly Chase Foundation, Trust for London and City law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, with support from law firm Clifford Chance, the commission sought to develop a co-ordinated strategy for the delivery of advice in a time of reduced resources and increased need.
The three reports
Following a 12-month inquiry, in which it heard from more than 250 individuals and organisations and conducted research into the cuts in six areas (Bristol, Gloucestershire, Leicester, London, Rochdale and the Western Bay area of Wales), it published a report in January 2014,
Tackling the advice deficit, containing 100 recommendations.
1The Low Commission reports are available at: www.lowcommission.org.ukChief among them were:
•that the UK and Welsh governments develop a national strategy for advice and legal support;
•a £100m implementation fund, with half the money coming from central government and half raised from other sources;
•the creation of a cross-departmental ministerial post;
•a review of matters excluded from funding under LASPO and consideration of reinstating legal aid for housing cases;
•reform of the ‘safety net provisions’ introduced by LASPO s10; and
•to prioritise public legal education, so people know their rights and know where to go for help.
A year later, the commission published a follow-up report, Getting it right in social welfare law (March 2015), with recommendations for better access to redress, reform of processes at the Department for Work and Pensions and an extension of transitional funding.
Its third and final report, written with the Advice Services Alliance, built on a theme touched on in the second – integrating advice with health and social care services (The role of advice services in health outcomes, June 2015). The report provided a wealth of evidence about the adverse impact that unresolved legal problems have on mental and physical health and how they are improved by the provision of timely advice.
What has the commission achieved?
Looking at how many of the commission’s recommendations have been implemented to date, it may at first blush appear to have achieved little. There has been no more funding, there is no minister for legal advice and one of the first things the government did, when elected, was to cut funding for public legal education. But that would be a simplistic approach that ignores the true impact of the commission, and in particular the value of the work done by its chair, doggedly spreading the word from the coalface to the corridors of power.
Engagement
The whole process of engagement with the advice sector and legal profession, in the year leading up to the first report, was ‘unprecedented’, says commissioner and former Ministry of Justice civil servant Amanda Finlay. ‘They felt they had been listened to, which helped, as the strategy we recommended came from people’s needs rather than what government thought should happen,’ she says.
In addition, she notes that Lord Low ‘put the whole topic of access to legal help on the agenda in a way that’s different from how it’s been done before. It’s always been done by lawyers; he is not a lawyer and he looked at the issue from the point of view of the people who need help’.
Despite the limited impact on government policy so far, the commission’s work has had the ear of politicians, attracting wide engagement among all political hues. It delivered fringe meetings at all three major party conferences in the run-up to the election and engaged in private meetings with politicians and think-tanks to influence manifestos – gaining an endorsement in the Liberal Democrat manifesto.
As Lord Low says himself with his characteristic dry wit: ‘The enthusiasm of political parties for our proposals has been inversely proportionate to their likelihood of ever having to implement them.’
More seriously, he says: ‘I’ve been pleased beyond expectation by the reaction that we’ve had from the secretaries of state.’ In particular, he says the commission has had ‘very good meetings’ with Oliver Letwin in the Cabinet Office, Michael Gove at the Ministry of Justice, and former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine, in its bid to develop cross-departmental working.
Last month, in the latest of the commission’s meetings with the government, Lord Low met with Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government. LAG’s director and member of the commission, Steve Hynes, who also attended, described the meeting as ‘very constructive’. Clark clearly understood the importance of co-ordinating advice services at a local level, and undertook to ‘follow up on the points that Lord Low put to him about the commission’s recommendations’.
‘They are certainly talking the talk, and we hope it doesn’t just stay at the level of talk – we hope they will walk the walk and actually deliver,’ Hynes adds. James Sandbach, campaigns and research manager to the commission, notes: ‘Government departments are extremely fragmented, but we do know that they are talking to each other about our work.’
Speaking at a recent conference in London, Labour peer Lord Bach noted the traction gained with those inside the Westminster village: ‘It [the commission] has come up with sensible and practical proposals in its three reports and managed to achieve some sort of dialogue with the powers that be in a way that most of us have singularly failed [to do].’
The commission’s recommendations also found favour with the judiciary. In his report to the justice committee in February, the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Thomas, echoed its call for a new way of providing civil justice.
Champion of social welfare law
For those still in doubt of its worth, Matthew Smerdon, chief executive of the Legal Education Foundation, states: ‘The commission has been an extremely important voice in the debate about the future of social welfare law’ and provided a ‘forum for positive discussion’, ensuring that the issue did not ‘fall further off the government’s agenda’ at a time when the sector was under particular pressure.
Praising Lord Low as a ‘fantastic champion for the valuable outcomes that social welfare legal services can deliver’, Smerdon highlights the commission’s work to extend the Advice Services Transition Fund.
The written output of the commission, says Smerdon, has presented the importance of social welfare law to audiences in government in an authoritative and non-partisan way, in particular the third report on the links between health, social care and legal support. The work on health, he says, has championed different perspectives and potential sources of funding, and brought various health-related advice organisations such as Macmillan Cancer Support, Age UK and the King’s Fund together with those in the legal advice sector.
A copy of the third report was sent to all clinical commissioning groups and health and well-being boards, and Finlay says that many responded positively, indicating efforts to integrate health and advice services. ‘People have known about the link [between legal advice and mental and physical health] for ages, but bringing together as much evidence all in one place made a real difference to people. It has provided ammo for those in the health sector who want to do something positive,’ she says.
Somewhat bizarrely, the commission’s work has gained particular traction in Wales, where the Welsh government, with cross-party support, has established a National Advice Network and committed extra funding to it, following the model recommended by the commission. The commission has just launched its Wales Manifesto for Advice ahead of the Welsh Assembly elections (see ‘Low Commission’s Manifesto for Advice in Wales aims to expand on its previous Welsh success’, March 2016 Legal Action 5) and the buy-in for the National Advice Network is a real achievement.
Assessing the commission’s legacy
The man himself, Lord Low, says: ‘We’ve put a focus on prevention and early action to prevent the need for legal intervention developing in the first place and on the need for a strategic focus on advice.’
Lord Low is proud of the commission’s part in promoting the association between the availability of good and timely advice and better health outcomes. ‘Social prescribing is an issue whose time has come. It’s not thanks to us entirely – we’ve caught a wave and added some power to it with our third report,’ he says.
Finally, the commission, he says, has played its part in the promotion of public legal education, taking part in work to launch an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Public Legal Education in February 2016, which parliamentarians from all of the main political parties have pledged to join.
And the view of others? Lord Bach’s assessment: ‘The work of the Low Commission has been exemplary – it has worked with the world as it is, not as we would like it to be.’ On whether it will lead to lasting change and increased funding, he is more circumspect: ‘There is not much evidence of change in legal aid. But if there’s to be any change of heart, it will be the work of the Low Commission that achieves it.’
Liberal Democrat peer and former legal aid minister, Lord McNally, agrees regretfully: ‘It is not very likely we will see any major changes in legal aid in this parliament.’
The Ministry of Justice told Legal Action that it welcomes the commission’s work and recognises the importance of legal advice being available in all contexts. A spokesman said: ‘As the justice secretary has said, we want to create a one nation justice system to work better for victims and to deliver faster and fairer justice for all citizens. We are discussing how this can be taken forward.’
Hynes believes the commission ‘leaves an important legacy’. ‘In the post-LASPO world the commission has made a compelling case to better fund and co-ordinate legal advice for the poor and vulnerable.’ Hoping to continue to support its work, Hynes adds: ‘The work of the commission has played an important role in opening doors in Whitehall.’
Lord Low also intends to carry on and keep up the momentum. ‘We haven’t achieved all that we wanted, but I do feel we’ve begun to get some traction and I hope it will deliver beneficial outcomes. We’ve got our agenda now, we’re all still interested in the field, so as long as we’re able to, we’ll keep doing it. It really depends on what funding we can get.’ ■