MP’s are voting today in parliament over controversial plans to cut legal aid which legal charity Reprieve say will see ‘torture victims denied their day in court’.
Reprieve further warns that cuts to legal aid will ‘leave the government immune from legal challenges for wrongdoing overseas’.
The measures, known as the ‘residence test,’ would block any person resident outside the UK from receiving legal aid.
Reprieve added: ‘The result would be that government actions which affected people living overseas would become near-impossible for anyone but the richest to challenge in court.’
Reprieve Legal Director, Kat Craig said: ‘The residence test would do lasting and serious damage to the concept that no-one, not even the government, is above the law. Deserving cases – such as victims of “rendition” operations in which the UK was complicit – would be denied their day in court. MPs must not let the government sneak this measure through the back-door without any debate.’
Thousands of barristers and solicitors walked out on strike for the first time in history on January 6 against what the the Criminal Bar Association called ‘crippling’ cuts to legal aid.
They organised a second walk out on March 7 and successfully forced Tory Justice Secretary Grayling to back down and halt the proposed cuts to legal aid for the time being.
However, legal aid is not protected for non-residents of the UK, for them today’s vote in parliament would mean that it would no longer be possible to proceed with their case under the new system.
High profile cases which would not be able to proceed include:
• Retired Gurkhas who brought a 2008 legal challenge over the Government’s refusal to allow them to settle in the UK.
• Victims of kidnap, ‘extraordinary rendition’ and torture, in which the UK Government was complicit.
• Afghan translators who worked on behalf of the UK Armed Forces but have been denied asylum in the UK, despite ongoing threats to their lives in their home country.
Two parliamentary Select Committees have issued critical reports concerning the proposal: the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR) warned last month that ‘the residence test will inevitably lead to breaches by the United Kingdom of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child,’ while the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments (JCSI) has said of the case put forward by the government that it ‘does not find these arguments persuasive.’
Ministers aim to pass the measure without debate today, as a ‘Statutory Instrument’ (SI), despite concerns raised by the JSCI that this would exceed the powers allowed under the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
MPs will also be barred from any attempts to amend the regulation.
