- Conference
- 2012 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 17 October 2011
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that women rely disproportionately on state funded legal advice services for civil law cases (sixty two per cent of applications being made by women, especially in areas like education and law).
Legal aid will be cut for welfare benefits, education and medical negligence advice and severely reduced for debt, unemployment, family law, housing and immigration advice.
There will also be changes to eligibility criteria, access to Legal aid and payments to legal advisors, leading to a significant impact on advice services leading to effects such as the following:
1)Violations to the right to a fair trial where there is no legal advice in particularly complex cases
2)Removal of advice on complex welfare benefits issues, housing and immigration issues
3)Restrictions on local availability of services
4)Women in abusive relationships will be particularly vulnerable to removal of Legal aid
Conference calls on the National Women’s Committee to liaise with the NEC, Labour Link and use all other avenues applicable, such as the Million Voices campaign to raise awareness of these issues and to lobby the government to reverse these cuts.