Legal Aid review much wider than budgets - Ford

Justice Minister David Ford has said that the current debate on Legal Aid should not just focus on budgets.

Instead, the Minister told members of the Law Society Council, we should look at how our publically funded legal services can provide access to justice for everyone in the future.

At tonight’s annual Law Society dinner in the Belfast’s City Hall, Mr Ford set out his agenda for reshaping the justice system and said that the Law Society has an important role to play in the reform.

He said: “In relation to Legal Aid, change is both inevitable and necessary. It is clear that there is a widely held sense within our community that the Legal Aid system is not working as it should.

“The fact is that the Legal Aid system in Northern Ireland in its present form is not sustainable. Any system which has a budget of £85 million but an expenditure of £104 million is living on borrowed time, particularly in the current economic climate.

“While budgets have dictated that my immediate priority on Legal Aid reform has been to halt the dramatic growth in the cost, I don’t want our vision to be focussed on budgets alone.

“The time is now right to think about the bigger question: what is our public legal aid system for?  If its purpose is to ensure access to justice for everyone, then how confident can we be that it is achieving that purpose?

“That is why I have announced a fundamental Review of Access to Justice.”

The Minister said that devolution provides the opportunity to build a joined up justice system.

He said: “Prior to devolution, the Northern Ireland Office was responsible to a Whitehall Minister for criminal justice, including prisons and policing. The Courts Service ran the courts – responsible to yet another Whitehall Minister and the Department of Finance and Personnel was responsible for civil justice matters.

“Under the new Department of Justice, we now have the opportunity to design a more integrated system. Joined up justice offers the potential of speedier, more efficient and effective justice.

“I do not underestimate the task ahead. But I do not accept it as inevitable that the system should be slow, that it does not support victims as well as it should, and that it does not always command public confidence.

“With fresh thinking these problems can be overcome. What we need to do is look at issues more closely and see them more logically.

“We need to come out of our comfort zones and be prepared to look further and wider for creative and effective answers.”

Notes to editors

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