Access to Justice

Status / emerging findings

• Over 40% of the population lack local access to housing legal aid providers; family law remuneration frozen since 1996; 100% of housing firms and 50%+ of family firms operate at a loss
• Legal Services Board downgraded SRA from 'met standards' (2024) to 'operationally insufficient' (2025) following Axiom Ince and SSB Law collapses; LSB moved from 'light-touch' to intelligence-led oversight
• Bar Standards Board imposed only three-month suspensions for barristers accused of sexual assault and harassment, suggesting inadequate disciplinary response
• Means test unfunded since 2010, progressively excluding more people despite 2023 MoJ reform proposal remaining unimplemented
• Government's proposed ILCA (Interest on Lawyers' Client Accounts) scheme departs from international best practice: lacks named beneficiaries, proposes Executive administration rather than independent foundation model

Why it matters

Millions of people cannot afford legal help and regulators have failed to prevent major law firm collapses—this inquiry will determine whether fundamental reform of legal aid, funding, and regulation is needed.

Tone arc

Began cooperative on funding solutions (ILCA evidence), shifted adversarial when regulatory failures emerged in LSB/SRA questioning; committee moved from exploring technical fixes to interrogating systemic institutional failure.

Key witnesses

Monisha Shah (Legal Services Board Chair), Richard Orpin (Legal Services Board Chief Executive), Professor Linda Mulcahy (Oxford Centre for Socio-Legal Studies), Kirsty Brimelow KC (Bar Council), Rohini Jana (Legal Aid Practitioners Group), Law Society, Bar Standards Board, Solicitors Regulation Authority