our campaign

The AJA is supported by community groups, national charities, lawyers, advisers and others who feel strongly that justice should remain accessible to all. We believe that the funding crisis facing legal aid cannot be ignored any longer.

The Alliance calls on the government to:

  1. Resource the whole legal aid scheme so that both civil and criminal work can operate within a realistic budget. This means protecting the civil legal aid budget to stop it being used to cover rising expenditure on criminal legal aid.
  2. Compensate the legal aid budget for the costs of new policies and initiatives.
  3. Co-ordinate spending by government departments and local authorities on independent legal and advice services and oblige them to contribute appropriate funding.
  4. Review and revise the eligibility criteria and extend legal aid for representation in tribunals to ensure that people of limited means can access justice.
  5. Guarantee quality standards in publicly funded legal and advice services.
  6. Provide co-ordinated funding for strategic and education legal services (including test cases), social policy, law reform and other non-casework services.