SAL joins the Criminal Legal Aid Review Programme Board

Society of Asian Lawyers is pleased to announce that it has now been added to Defence Practitioner Advisory Panel (the Panel) for the Criminal Legal Aid Review Programme Board, as part of the Ministry of Justice Review of Criminal legal aid fee schemes (the Review).

The Review will consider legal aid throughout the life-cycle of a criminal case, as well as wider changes to the justice, social, economic, business and technological landscape that are impacting on the criminal legal aid system.

In order for a Review of such importance to be effective and thorough, it is essential that it includes representation from a diverse range of legal groups. We are therefore pleased that the Ministry of Justice agreed to our appointment. This would not have been possible without the support of fellow BAME groups, the Association of Muslim Lawyers and the Black Solicitors Network.

This is an important opportunity for our membership to have an input and help shape the future of the legal aid landscape for all criminal law practitioners in the country and as such going forward we strongly urge all of our membership to liaise and work closely with us in providing feedback and information as to their experiences of working with legal aid and what issues they face and foresee.

We will update you in due course.