The court heard applications for permission to apply for judicial review of the changes to criminal legal aid for prison law introduced by the 2013 Regulations 2013. The two claims concerned separate but related issues: first, that there was not sufficient consultation in relation to aspects of the changes and secondly, that the removal from the scope of criminal legal aid funding of certain areas creates unacceptable risks of unfair decision making where fundamental rights are at stake and of interference with the common law and article 6 ECHR right of access to justice. The removal from scope is also discriminatory, irrational in a public law sense and will undermine the rule of law.
Rafferty LJ, Cranston J
[2014] EWHC 709 (Admin)
Bailii
Criminal Legal Aid (General) (Amendment) Regulations 2013 SI 2013 No 2790
England and Wales
Legal Aid
Updated: 02 November 2021; Ref: scu.522546
