Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 2:39 pm on 18 September 2018.
Leader of the house, you will have seen over the past couple of years the statements from Baroness Hale, the president of the Supreme Court, and you will have seen the statements from senior judiciary and many lawyers, about the way in which the Tories have actually destroyed the legal aid system, consequently disempowering whole communities, and some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society, from having the sort of advice and support that should naturally be available to them in any civilised society. The Welsh Government has over the years provided, through Citizens Advice, through funding of third sector groups that provide advice, areas to counter that deprived—some form of counter to those destructive cuts. But I wonder if we could have a statement from the Government on the issue of access to justice in Wales and also the issue of how we can actually start pulling together and reconstructing a new Welsh legal aid system—a system that will actually provide empowerment and advice and support to people within Wales, because the Tories won't do it and we know that we clearly have to do something about the empowerment of some of our poorest communities.