A Sustainable Future for Legal Aid A Sustainable Future for Legal Aid The Scottish Government, Edinburgh 2011 © Crown copyright 2011 You may re-use this information (excluding logos and images) free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government Licence. To view this licence, visit http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/ or e-mail:
[email protected]. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This document is also available from our website at www.scotland.gov.uk. ISBN: 978-1-78045-444-3 The Scottish Government St Andrew’s House Edinburgh EH1 3DG Produced for the Scottish Government by APS Group Scotland DPPAS12089 (10/11) Published by the Scottish Government, October 2011 A Sustainable Future for Legal Aid Introduction 1. Renewing Scotland: The Government’s Programme for Scotland, published on 7 September 2011, sets out the Government’s intention to maintain and improve access to justice in the current economic climate, including by taking forward a series of legal aid reforms.1 The proposals in this paper set out how we will do this. The ambition is to maintain a fair, high quality and equitable system which maintains public confidence at an affordable and sustainable level of expenditure. 2. The reforms will be taken forward through the Making Justice Work programme. The aim of the programme, which has been set up by the Scottish Government, is to ensure that Scotland’s justice system is fair and accessible, cost- effective and efficient and that it resolves disputes and prosecutions quickly, securing just outcomes.2 Widening access to justice is a key part of this programme, with a range of specific projects being developed in order to support and empower citizens to avoid (or resolve informally) disputes and problems wherever possible.