The government is expected to make an announcement on its long-awaited review of its controversial legal aid reforms this afternoon.
The government has promised a review of the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012 (LASPO) by April 2018. The act, which came into force in April 2013, removed vast swaths of law from the scope of legal aid.
The then justice minister Sir Oliver Heald QC told an all-party parliamentary group on legal aid in January that the government had set the ball rolling. Last month, justice minister Dominic Raab told MPs that he was 'currently considering' the planned post-implementation review and he would be making an announcement 'in due course'.
The government has come under increasing pressure from MPs to ensure it conducts a thorough review of the act. An early day motion on the cuts attracted 82 signatures from MPs in the Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green, Plaid Cymru and Conservative parties.
The legal aid motions's primary sponsor is Green Party MP Caroline Lucas. Co-sponsors are Labour MPs Karen Buck and Andy Slaughter, Liberal Democrat MP Ed Davey, Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts and Conservative MP Peter Bottomley.
Lord Bach, chair of the Bach Commission's report on access to justice, which was published last month, has called for cross party consensus on the issue. Senior Conservative politicians, including solicitor-general Robert Buckland, have already indicated that they are ready to support a rethink on legal aid policy.
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