Law Society of England and Wales, R (on the application of) v The Lord Chancellor
| Judge | Lord Justice Singh,Mr Justice Jay |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 155 (Admin) |
| Date | 31 January 2024 |
| Counsel | Tom De La Mare Kc,Jason Pobjoy,Gayatri Sarathy,Emmeline Plews,Sir James Eadie Kc,Catherine Dobson,Adam Boukraa,Isabella Buono,Adam Wagner |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | King's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 155 (Admin)
Case No: AC-2023-LON-000888
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
DIVISIONAL COURT
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 31 January 2024
Before :
LORD JUSTICE SINGH
MR JUSTICE JAY
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Between :
The KING (on the application of the LAW
SOCIETY OF ENGLAND AND WALES) Claimant
- and -
THE LORD CHANCELLOR
- and -
(1) THE CRIMINAL LAW SOLICITORS’
ASSOCIATION
(2) THE LONDON CRIMINAL COURTS
SOLICITORS’ ASSOCIATION
Defendant
Interested
Parties
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tom De La Mare KC, Jason Pobjoy, Gayatri Sarathy and Emmeline Plews (instructed by
Bindmans) for the Claimants
Sir James Eadie KC, Catherine Dobson, Adam Boukraa and Isabella Buono (instructed by
the Government Legal Department) for the Defendant
Adam Wagner (instructed by Hay & Kilner for the First Interested Party and by Mr
Edward Elwyn Jones for the Second Interested Party) for the Interested Parties
Hearing dates: 12-14 December 2023
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Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 10 a.m. on 31st January 2024 by circulation to
the parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives.
.............................
LORD JUSTICE SINGH AND MR JUSTICE JAY
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down. Law Society v Lord Chancellor
Lord Justice Singh and Mr Justice Jay:
Introduction
1. This is the judgment of the Court.
2. This claim for judicial review arises from recommendations made by Sir Christopher
(now Lord) Bellamy KC in the ‘Criminal Legal Aid Independent Review’ (“CLAIR”)
Report dated 29 November 2021. The Claimant is the Law Society of England and
Wales. The Defendant is the Lord Chancellor. Although the Lord Chancellor
accepted and has implemented many of the recommendations made by Lord Bellamy,
the Law Society challenges two aspects of the response to the report:
(1) The failure to implement the “Central Recommendation” in full, that is
Recommendation 5 of the Report at para 16.4, that additional funding of at
least £100 million per annum (an overall increase of some 15%) was required
for criminal legal aid solicitors’ firms;
(2) The alleged failure to implement Recommendation 3(i) at para 16.2, that an
Advisory Board should be established and that the Ministry of Justice (“MoJ”)
should consider, in conjunction with the Advisory Board as appropriate, the
extent of unmet need in criminal legal aid and how those needs should be met,
referred to by the Law Society as the “Non-Intervention Recommendation”.
3. In outline, the four grounds of challenge are that:
(1) The Lord Chancellor has breached the duty to provide criminal legal aid in
accordance with section 1 of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of
Offenders Act 2012 (“Ground 1”).
(2) The Lord Chancellor has acted irrationally (“Ground 2”).
(3) The Lord Chancellor has failed to provide adequate reasons (“Ground 3”).
(4) The Lord Chancellor has breached the duty to make adequate enquiries (often
Borough Council [1977] AC 1014, at 1065) (“Ground 4”).
4. Ground 4 was added with the permission of Fordham J shortly before the hearing
before us but logically comes between Grounds 1 and 2, which is how we will deal
with it below.
5. We are grateful to all counsel and solicitors in this case, including those acting for the
Interested Parties, for their written and oral submissions, and for their diligent
preparation and presentation of this important case.
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