One of the central tenets to a healthy Democracy is the access to Justice by all on the basis of need and not only on wealth. By allowing reasonable access to Justice, citizenship is enhanced and social exclusion reduced. In Criminal Justice, it plays ‘a critical role in ensuring the right to a fair trial is upheld’.
Over the past 10 years’ funding for Legal Aid has been slashed and with it access to justice in England and Wales. This has been under the radar, and from discussions, we have been led to believe that it isn’t deemed focus-group worthy by the political classes, and so the effects have been missed and are often demonised by the media. The legal profession knows, but can’t seem to get traction further afield.
In 2012 a new law was passed (LASPO, The Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act), and this ensured that Legal Aid was cut across the board by catastrophic amounts. There was an outcry from the Legal Profession, but these were hidden cuts, only those in desperate need ever access the funding, and this legislation ensured that there was no longer adequate access to legal advice, representation and mediation in both Civil and Criminal Law. The cuts to the Legal Aid budget have been dramatic, which also means that relatively few legal professionals can afford to undertake Legal Aid work.
Without public awareness of the real impact of these budget cuts, it seems unlikely that future governments will restore the funding. Barristers have been on Strike, the Law Society has taken the Government to Court, but the rulings in their favour have seemed to have little impact on the wider consciousness. To give an example of the changes: In 2009/10 there were 933,815 Civil Cases started using Legal Aid (Civil cases include family law, housing, immigration, education, welfare), by 2022/23 there were 131,517, a decline of 85%. For Criminal 1.62m cases were started in 2009/10 and by 2022/23 only 1.02m, a 37% decline. These reductions are not due to improvements in Justice-related issues, they are due to the massive drop in access to funding. The impacts of this are across the board.
We decided as a team to individually concentrate on certain areas to play to our strengths. Nevertheless, the artwork we have created can be brought together as a single cohesive exhibition that addresses the issues surrounding Legal Aid funding. Based on our research the works address the quantitative and qualitative aspects of the problems and the impact of these issues on people.
We consider this body of work a form of Cohesive Protest Art, where the effects are so broad that bringing change will benefit all in society who are at a point of need. We aim to mount a public exhibition in a public space to highlight the issues, to reach wider audiences and start constructive debate. Our ultimate aim is to take it around the UK, but to do this, funding is necessary. The search is on-going.
