Legal Aid Reform: Consultation

Section 5: Overall Impact

This consultation sets out a proposed direction of reform to deliver a more modern, accessible and sustainable legal aid system.

It will support a more proactive approach to planning and delivery, with clearer roles, stronger accountability, and appropriate oversight by Ministers and Parliament.

The Bill will also seek to simplify how legal aid operates, streamline decision-making, and support a more flexible system of delivery, including a mix of providers. Alongside this, it will aim to create a fairer and more transparent financial model.

Taken together, these proposals are intended to create a system that is easier to understand, more responsive to people’s needs, and better able to deliver fair access to justice within available resources.

However, the proposals involve important choices and trade-offs. Their impact will depend on how they are implemented in practice, how risks are managed, and the views and evidence provided through this consultation, which will play a key role in shaping the final policy approach.

Questions

Q22. Overall, how would you characterise the likely impact of the proposed reforms?

• Likely to have a positive overall impact
• Likely to have a negative overall impact
• Likely to have mixed impacts
• Insufficient information to reach a conclusion

Please explain your answer, including any key benefits, risks, trade-offs or unintended consequences. Please also use this space to provide any additional comments on the proposals set out in this consultation.