Legal Aid and the Means Test

Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General and Minister for the Constitution – in the Senedd at 3:05 pm on 22 September 2021.

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Photo of Huw Irranca-Davies Huw Irranca-Davies Labour 3:05, 22 September 2021

I welcome that response. The Counsel General will know that, since legal aid was cut and the means testing made more stringent as a result of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, the LASPO Act, that has meant that many of these cases now are coming into our surgeries—all of us. We're seeing it in increasing debt, we're seeing it in mental health problems, we are seeing it even going as far as homelessness as a result of the inability to access early legal aid. It's also an increasing burden on the taxpayer and an increasing burden on the courts system as well. So, I wonder whether the Counsel General would agree to meet with not only the Law Society, not only with Citizens Advice, but also other advice organisations in Wales to discuss the rise in clamour for reform and for change in this sphere, and to reinstate early access to legal aid advice and to reform as well the stringent—too stringent—tests that there are in means tests for legal aid. It's not only causing stresses on the legal system, it's causing distress for our constituents.