5. What representations has the Counsel General made to the UK Government regarding the ability of victims of crime to access legal services? OAQ51717

The Welsh Government has taken every opportunity to raise with the UK Government our concerns that access to legal services is currently beyond the means of those victims of crime who have low or modest incomes, and this raises serious issues, both of access to justice and social justice more broadly.

Thank you, Counsel General. Last year, the UK Government released statistics showing a shocking rise in the number of domestic violence survivors with no legal representation in family courts. The statistics reveal that the number of those having to represent themselves in courts in England and Wales have doubled during the last five years. In the first nine months of last year, 3,234 domestic violence survivors had no legal representation in at least one hearing. Does the Counsel General believe that this worrying rise needs to be addressed by the UK Government, and what representations can he make on cuts to legal aid and its devastating impact?

I thank the Member for the question. It highlights a very grave injustice that victims of domestic violence in particular face. As her question recognises, thousands of women find themselves in family courts representing themselves in person against their own abusers. That is not something that is permitted any longer in the criminal courts, but it still remains a very real experience for women in the family courts. That is because of the withdrawal of legal aid, and although there have been some concessions by the UK Government at the end of last year, they are nowhere near adequate to tackle the scale of the issue.

As she will know, in order to qualify for legal aid at all, the assets, which may be under the control of the abuser, or even their income, can be taken into account in calculating the financial thresholds, which is obviously not acceptable. The former Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children wrote to the Secretary of State for Justice in January of last year, highlighting the need to improve practices within the family court in cases involving victims of domestic abuse and violence, and the Government has written to the UK Government on a number of occasions, challenging its approach to legal aid, and the cuts and the impact of those cuts in Wales, and the Welsh Government takes every opportunity to express its concern on this vital issue of justice and social justice to the Ministry of Justice in the UK Government. 

The Deputy Presiding Officer (Ann Jones) took the Chair.