Lord Bach may deserve plaudits but David Burrows urges caution—that which can be given by politicians can be taken away by them
Any judge is likely to be upset by the slogan ‘Right to Justice’ with an accompanying commission to monitor justice as proposed by The Right to Justice (Fabian Policy Report, September 2017 (the Bach Report ). Most people in UK—with the exception of the editor of the Daily Mail —probably believe that justice is what English judges do very well (see eg R (Miller & anor) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5, [2017] 2 WLR 583)); so a ‘right to justice’ is not something we need.
The Bach Report has three main areas of proposed reform:
- It proposes a statute to enshrine a ‘right to justice’ alongside a ‘right to reasonable legal assistance’. These must be backed by a ‘Right to Justice Act’ and a Justice Commission.
- It suggests reforms to the administration of legal aid; and a fairer scheme for means-testing reforms. It proposes changes to the scope of work which can be done
