The Ministry of Justice fared ill under the Osborne-Cameron austerity cuts. As we now enter a new political age—whatever the result of the general election next year—we have to work out a sensible way of going forward from what, frankly, is a mess. This is amply exemplified by the state of civil legal aid.
The cuts’ initial impact, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies, would have reduced departmental spending by 40%. In the event, this proved too much even for the most gung ho of treasury ministers. The cuts finally plateaued at around 25%—though not before we got the (now revoked) privatisation of the Probation Service and a chaotic court modernisation programme. We also got the evisceration of civil legal aid through the ill-famed Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012.
Civil legal aid contributed a pretty exact share to the departmental cuts. Its spending declined from £1.3bn to £686m before rebounding in 2021–22 to £880m. The problem
