Post by nickd on Mar 3, 2012 8:36:17 GMT 1
HM Government has promised transparency and openness.
They now have an 'open justice' website. It is all about the justice system and the changes which are currently being made.
The official government 'Open Justice' website tells us 'we should be the judge'. It informs us the "public are more lenient than the judiciary".
Let's take a look at how 'open' the Justice department really is.
The Justice website makes very interesting reading, it tells us which way government wants our justice system to change. Astonishingly, despite the Justice department's proposed abolition of legal aid for social welfare problems being one of the most fiercely debated subjects in parliament of late; - There is not one single mention of the legal cuts on the site.
The website tells us 'you be the judge' ; - yet it conceals one of the keys changes in the reform of the justice system. The passage of the legal aid, sentencing & punishment of offender's bill (LASPO) is reaching its final stages in Parliament in the week ahead; - the bill will bring about the total abolition of legal aid in social welfare cases in key areas such as welfare benefits and employment. Other areas will be seriously cut back so you can only access help in all but the most dire of circumstances - such as being in imminent danger of losing your home. How can you be the judge - when the Justice department conceals the real facts? - you have to assume they are simply too ashamed to tell you about the most savage of legal aid cuts we have ever seen.
The Justice site tells us it is all about getting tough on crime, it uses key words such as - 'more punishment' - 'more payback' - 'less re-offending'. But look for the hidden detail in the Justice site and see how it contains a number of references to 'breaking the cycle of re-offending' with ' more local involvement and accountability'. The Justice department is keeping quiet about the legal aids cuts in social welfare; - it knows all too well that access to advice in the locality is a well recognised way of reducing offending.
But as with all these official information sources; - take a close look at some of the more detailed pages.
Civil Justice [/u]
On the 'civil justice' section, there is not one single mention over how the Tribunal system works; - it is bizarre not to include a reference to this because Her Majesty's Courts Service is now officially merged with the Tribunals Service - they are one of the same.
The 'Open Justice' website omits all reference to the Tribunals Service because this is where the abolition of social welfare legal aid will have the most adverse impact. The social Security Tribunals had to deal with a huge number of cases in 2010/2011 with a record breaking 418,500 benefit appeal cases. Legal aid is showing up the unacceptably high number of incorrectly made decisions made by those in authority- with legal aid the claimant stands a 70% chance of succeeding because social welfare legal aid highlights the mistakes made by far too many government departments like the DWP, HMRC and Local Authorities.
Criminal Justice
The Justice department is making hardly any cuts in the areas of criminal justice. Take a look at the the section on 'criminal law' and look at how inefficiently the criminal courts operate.
Take a look at the figures for cases dealt with effectively
Less than half of all criminal cases are dealt with effectively, yet the Ministry of Justice continues to pump billions of pounds in to an ineffective criminal justice system.
Social Welfare legal aid could for instance significantly reduce the number of 'ineffective trials' - these are cases where the case often can't go ahead because of various reasons, sometimes more information is needed about the defendant's social circumstances. Cracked trials are usually the result of an acceptable plea being entered by the defendant on the day, or where the prosecution offers no evidence against the defendant; - why are there so many of these? [/i]
Have a look at the Open Justice Website
open.justice.gov.uk/home/
You be the judge over how open the Justice department is.