Westminster update: Labour's justice policies

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1. Parliamentarians and profession gather to discuss Labour's justice policies

On Wednesday 16 October, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Legal and Constitutional Affairs held its first session of this new parliament.

The Law Society provides the secretariat for the APPG.

The session welcomed Labour MP Catherine Atkinson as the APPG’s new co-chair and retained Conservative peer Lord Hunt of Wirral as the other co-chair.

Two new officers were selected – Labour MP Kevin Bonavia and Liberal Democrat MP Paul Kohler – and over 20 other parliamentarians signed up for membership.

Both our vice chair Mark Evans and Bar Council chair Sam Townend gave speeches about the state of the justice system and outlined what needs to be done by the Labour government to improve it.

Mark Evans spoke passionately about the need for immediate investment in criminal legal aid and made the point that it would be an investment.

The legal sector generates a huge amount of revenue for the UK economy and is capable of producing even more with the right support.

Several suggestions were made by parliamentarians:

• Baroness Ludford (Liberal Democrat) asked that sector leaders also focus their efforts on improving the civil justice system, which is difficult to navigate and inefficient
• Andy Slaughter, the newly elected chair of the Justice Select Committee, said that he looked forward to working with both the Bar and the Law Society in identifying what inquiries the committee should have in the next year
• Lord Murray of Blidworth (Conservative) expressed concern over the number of judicial sitting days and the effect this might have on the courts backlog

The APPG will hold further meetings over the course of this parliament, seeking to address some of the big policy issues relating to the justice system and the legal professions.

2. Magistrates' sentencing powers boosted to tackle backlog

The lord chancellor, Shabana Mahmood, has announced that magistrates will have their powers to hand out prison sentences up to 12 months restored.

In a statement to the Commons on Thursday 17 October, she said that restoring these powers, first given in 2022 and then taken away again last year, would:

• help address the significant number of prisoners currently held on remand
• free up space in the prison estate
• help boost capacity in the Crown Court

The measures will come into force on 18 November.

However, we have raised concerns that the powers will not significantly address the backlog.

Instead, a whole system approach, including funding for the courts estate and criminal legal aid, is needed if the challenges faced by the justice system are to be addressed.

Responding for the Conservatives, the shadow lord chancellor, Ed Argar, asked if the Law Society and other bodies had been consulted on this new measure and pressed the lord chancellor to secure additional funding for justice at the upcoming budget on 30 October.

Mahmood criticised Argar, noting he was a member of the last government which had overseen the prison crisis.

However, she did confirm that a long-term plan for the justice system will come forward in the next few weeks.

3. Government publishes industrial strategy

The government published its new industrial strategy on Monday 14 October, setting out how it will drive growth by focusing on eight key industries.

Business and professional services, which includes the legal sector, is one of the targeted sectors, with the government looking at:

• how to bring down barriers
• support skills
• help the sector to grow to achieve the government’s mission of the fastest sustained growth in the G7

The strategy comes alongside a consultation closing next month, which asks industries and stakeholders to put forward:

• ways barriers and obstacles within their sector can be removed
• how the government can act as a growth partner

We will be making a submission and engaging closely with ministers in the Department for Business and Trade, Treasury and Ministry of Justice to ensure legal services and law firms are at the forefront of the strategy.

If you have ideas that you would like us to consider in our response, please get in touch.

Lawtech, our justice system, and respect for the rule of law are all referenced throughout the strategy, showing that the government already recognises the important role legal services plays within our wider economy.

The government’s response to the consultation will be published at the spring budget, alongside the comprehensive spending review.

4. Justice select committee members elected

On Wednesday 16 October and Thursday 17 October, the Labour and Conservative parties held elections to select their representatives on the Justice Select Committee

The committee is the key parliamentary committee tasked with overseeing the work of the Ministry of Justice.

As the party with the most MPs, Labour has been allocated the lion’s share of the membership.

Only two Conservative MPs were elected compared to seven Labour MPs, including Labour’s Andy Slaughter, following his earlier election as chair of the committee.

Of the eight newly elected members, six have legal backgrounds in various areas of legal practice:

• Sarah Russell (Labour) practised for multiple firms primarily in the employment and housing spaces
• Linsey Farnsworth (Labour) was previously a Crown prosecutor and international liaison prosecutor handling overseas crime
• Alex Barros-Curtis (Labour) has had an extensive career as a consultant solicitor, working for Allen & Overy and Myriad Consultants
• Warinder Juss (Labour) worked as a personal injury solicitor for over 30 years, while also taking on a teaching role at a further education college in Wolverhampton
• Sir Ashley Fox (Conservative) specialised in insurance litigation, working for 15 years in Bristol before being elected to parliament
• Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative) worked initially as an army doctor before qualifying as a barrister and becoming a member of the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service
• non-qualified members Mike Tapp and Pam Fox (both Labour) also bring a wealth of experience, working for the National Crime Agency and as a professor of social history and criminology respectively

We will be reaching out to each member of the new Justice Select Committee to update them on the issues affecting the profession and about their focuses for the future.

Coming up:

The chancellor of the exchequer will deliver her first budget on 30 October.

We are making representations to the Treasury on recommendations for supporting the justice system and legal services sector.

We are working closely with MPs and peers to influence a number of bills before Parliament:

• Arbitration Bill will have its report stage in the Lords on 30 October
• Employment Rights Bill will have its second reading in the Commons on 21 October
• Product Regulation and Metrology Bill will have its committee stage in the Lords on 4 November
• Renters' Rights Bill will begin its committee stage in the Commons on 22 October