News Shorts and Other Busyness

Legal Aid Cuts Against Human Rights

Squall 11, Autumn 1995, pg. 15.

Plans to cut legal aid risk breaking European human rights laws, the human rights pressure group Liberty have said.

The government plans to introduce regional cash limits on the amount of legal aid a person can receive; and legal aid would only be available to “fundholding” solicitors working on the same principles as doctors who control their own budgets.

Liberty say that the plans break both the European convention on human rights and the United Nations’ international covenant on political and civil rights. Both agreements say that free legal help should be given to those who cannot afford it in the interests of justice.