ELAS Members Update - Consultation on changes to Legal Aid
The Deadline for responses to the consultation on changes to Legal Aid is Monday February 14th.
Members may still have just enough time to respond!
One member has made a response which may be of interest to others and can be read at the following link. http://sinclairslaw.co.uk/sites/default/files/Response-to-Legal-Aid-Reform.pdf
Mike Sinclair's response made the National Welsh Papers http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education-news/2011/02/10/legal-aid-reform-will-hit-vulnerable-in-education-91466-28145327/
As ELAS members are no doubt aware, on 15 November the Justice Secretary announced the start of a consultation on a range of reforms to legal aid. These proposals can be found at
http://www.justice.gov.uk/consultations/legal-aid-reform-151110.htm
The Executive Committee believe that the association should respond to the consultation. As ELAS membership is broad and represents a wide range of legal educational professionals it is extremly difficult to formulate an 'ELAS' response.
However, three EC members, Oliver Hyams, Fiona Scolding and Eleanor Wright plus Elaine Maxwell will attend a meeting on 18th January with Stephen Jones, Head, Civil Legal Aid Eligibility & Scope Branch at Ministry of Justice who has responsibility for dealing with the proposals on financial eligibility in civil cases, and also for scope changes to, amongst other areas, claims against public authorities;education; and the "Miscellaneous" LSC category of law.
At this meeting Stephen Jones hopes to gather initial views on the detail of the proposals set out in the consultation paper.
The EC would like to encourage all ELAS members to involve themselves in this consultation as the reforms are likely to have huge implications for the work many of you do in the field of education law.
The deadline for responses is 14th February.
Members will be kept up to date on EC activities regarding this consultation.
