Free legal advice cuts will hit 'extra 150,000'

Recent research has shown that government reforms to free legal services will deny legal aid to 150,000 more people than the authorities have estimated.

The Legal Action Group (LAG) said that the actual figure affected was 650,000, compared to the government's estimate of 502,000. The body discovered this when it looked at the Legal Services Commission's records of 2008/09 legal advice cases and compared it with figures from the government's impact assessment, Lawgazette.co.uk reported.

"The government used the most generous interpretation of the data it thought it could get away with. This really is a case of lies, damned lies and statistics," LAG director Steve Hynes said.

He added the report makes it clear that the planned cuts to free legal services will have an impact on a greater number of people than the government estimated.

In addition, Mr Hynes last month called on Hackney Council to campaign against cuts to free legal advice services, as the borough is likely to be affected by the plans, the Hackney Citizen reported.

Published by Hannah Carr