A Bar Council report, Small Change for Justice, published this week, reveals just £0.39 per day per head is spent on the justice system, including the police, prison & probation, courts & tribunals, Legal Aid Agency, Crown Prosecution Service and other Ministry of Justice expenditure.
The report, by economists Professor Chalkley and Alice Chalkley and commissioned by the Bar Council, analysed spending between 2010 and 2019. The research found that overall funding for the justice system has declined by 29% in real terms per person since 2010.
However, the report also calculated how little additional funding would be needed to restore both the justice system and the police budgets to their 2010 levels.
Amanda Pinto QC, Chair of the Bar Council (pictured), said: ‘Law and order is as much about keeping the public safe as it is about access to justice.
‘We’ve seen what a lack of funding for law and order achieves―rising crime, low detection rates, long delays to cases with many collapsing before they get anywhere near a court, victims of crime denied justice, and all because government after government has scrimped on the justice budget.
‘Compared to other countries and other Whitehall budgets, UK justice is the poor relation. For just small change―22p per person more―the government could put its money where its mouth is, commit to boosting law and order and protecting the public by investing the price of a packet of hobnobs per person per week in the whole justice system.’
Read the report at: bit.ly/ 3j7TwwN.
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