The long-awaited Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill has been published. I have reproduced it below via Scribd. The Ministry of Justice’s press release is here.
The Ministry of Justice has also released its response to its formal consultation on legal aid reforms (also reproduced via Scribd below the page break).
The Bill contains:
- the government’s proposals on civil (section 7 onwards) and criminal (section 12 onwards) legal aid;
- new arrangements for litigation funding and costs (section 41 onwards);
- The (controversial) proposals for criminal sentencing reforms.
