This Note contains a brief summary of the development of legal aid, focussing on changes since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, before summarising the most recent consultation paper, Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a More Credible and Transparent System. The Note then outlines reactions to the latest proposals and summarises recent parliamentary scrutiny of the proposed changes.
Debate on 11 July: Effect of Cuts in Legal Aid Funding on the Justice System (337 KB , PDF)
This Library Note provides background reading in advance of the debate to be held on 11 July on “the effect of cuts in legal aid funding on the justice system in England and Wales”. The Note contains a brief summary of the development of legal aid, focussing on changes since the Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, before summarising the most recent consultation paper, Transforming Legal Aid: Delivering a More Credible and Transparent System. The Note then outlines reactions to the latest proposals and summarises recent parliamentary scrutiny of the proposed changes.
Debate on 11 July: Effect of Cuts in Legal Aid Funding on the Justice System (337 KB , PDF)
The Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill is a private member’s bill that has government support. The purpose of the bill is to amend the Equality Act 2010 to make employers liable for harassment of their employees by third parties (such as customers or clients) and to introduce a specific duty on employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent the sexual harassment of their employees.
Before an employer can make an employee on maternity, adoption or shared parental leave redundant, redundancy protection regulations require an employer to give that employee first refusal on a suitable alternative vacancy where one exists. The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill would give the secretary of state powers to introduce regulations that would enable redundancy protections to apply from the point an employee told their employer that they were pregnant, and six months after returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
The Protection for Whistleblowing Bill [HL] would introduce several protections for whistleblowers, including the establishment of an independent Office of the Whistleblower. The bill would also create offences relating to the treatment of whistleblowers and the handling of whistleblowing cases. It would also repeal the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998.
![Protection for Whistleblowing Bill [HL]: HL Bill 27 of 2022–23](https://lordslibrary-parliament.studio24.dev/content/uploads/sites/2/2020/01/Business-VIGs-568x426.jpg)