‘The high court has rejected a challenge by charities working with prisoners over legal aid cuts introduced by the justice secretary, Chris Grayling. The Howard League for Penal Reform and the Prisoners Advice Service said vulnerable people in the prison system, including inmates with mental health problems and women with babies, would suffer injustice following the removal of the right to criminal legal aid in many prison law cases. Lady Justice Rafferty and Mr Justice Cranston, sitting in London on Monday, said they could “well understand the concerns” raised by the new regulations, introduced in December by Grayling, who is also the lord chancellor. “But we simply cannot see, at least at this point in time, how these concerns can arguably constitute unlawful action by the lord chancellor. For the time being, the forum for advancing these concerns remains the political.” ‘
The Guardian, 17th March 2014
Source: www.guardian.co.uk
