Bar Council calls for increased funding to support covid-stricken courts
updated on 19 January 2021
The Bar Council has requested an additional £55 million investment for HM Courts and Tribunals Service to address the increased demand on court staff due to covid-19, among three other short-term “recommendations”.
According to the body, 84% of barristers who attended court in December 2020 had concerns about their “safety and wellbeing”, with courts being described as “unsafe, dirty and poorly ventilated”. The Bar Council explained that despite covid-19-safe measures being implemented, they are not consistently enforced.
The body, which represents around 17,000 barristers demanded an injection of cash into the justice system for staff recruitment and retainment to ensure the safety of court staff and users, “and to prevent courts acting as vectors of transmission”.
An additional 42 Nightingale Courts have also been requested to help clear the backlog of cases, which has been exacerbated due to the pandemic. The Bar Council has urged the government to fund the additional Nightingale Courts to deal with the “alarmingly high” number of outstanding cases in the Crown Court and avoid any further delays.
Further recommendations include making non-means tested legal aid available for all domestic abuse cases and introducing early access to legal advice for social welfare issues. In its Budget Submission, the Bar Council said: “Legal aid intervention at an early stage is cheaper than only having legal aid when the matter has escalated to crisis point and the matter is more expensive to put right. Given the increase in such matters as a result of covid-19, now is the time to restore critical aspects of legal aid, to help with the backlog of cases and to resolve matters quickly and efficiently.”
