NO LEGAL AID MEANS NO ROSY FUTURE

Of all the announcements in the Queen`s Speech one that will have bypassed those without a vested interest in the subject is that almost 500 new prosecutors will be recruited in the next six months after concerns that criminal cases were dropped or delayed owing to a shortage of resources. Since 2010 when the MOJ budget was slashed by 23% and loudly proclaimed by he who has just retired as "father of the House; Kenneth Clarke", the justice system of which politicians of all hues shout so proudly has been allowed to fall into what can only be described as disrepair.  Of course at the top of the justice tree where the highest civil courts and their professional protagonists operate billions of pounds keep rolling in from those foolish individuals and companies with more money than they know what to do with. The Supreme Court as has been seen recently offers the most demanding questions of law to its members and provides the highest quality of decisions. But at t`other end in what remains of our magistrates courts and to a certain degree in the Crown Courts inefficiencies and sheer incompetencies  seem every day to outdo each other in their capacity to undermine swift, safe and secure justice for all. All the components in the running of a court are there in a state of disarray and/or wilful neglect. The numbers of magistrates was allowed to drop to alarming levels supposedly in line with a falling workload and the closing of half the courts in England and Wales. Urgent recruitment over the last few months and currently is likely to lead to a drop in quality standards of those hurriedly thrown into the midst of a recruitment policy which over emphasises the diversity mix as much as any other individual requirements. During the last few years of my career on the bench prosecutors without a law degree were being employed in matters where properly qualified CPS personnel were unavailable. Returning to my opening sentence there is no knowing of what academic or professional level these 500 hurriedly soon to be employed newcomers will have to have achieved but in all likelihood many will not be qualified lawyers.  During my tenure such people were referred to as "assistant prosecutors". It remains to be seen what 2020 holds but I`m afraid that without the availability of legal aid as it was twenty years ago that outlook is far from rosy.