Law centre campaigners hold protest outside Legal Services Commission
Article published: Tuesday, November 16th 2010
Supporters of the South Manchester Law Centre (SMLC) and Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit (GMIAU) staged a protest outside the Manchester office of the Legal Services Commission (LSC) yesterday, Monday 15 November, calling on them to back down from a legal challenge launched by the SMLC and to restore their full funding.
Both of the centres – which provide free and independent legal advice and representation – face potentially huge cuts in their budgets due to a change in the regime for allocating legal aid funding, as reported by MULE over the past two months. However a victory last week at the High Court in Manchester gave grounds for South Manchester Law Centre to proceed with a full legal challenge of the decision. GMIAU will now attatch itself as part of the claim.
One group of clients who would be particularly hit should SMLC close is Manchester’s Somali community. Community spokesperson Mohammed Ismael, who was at the protest, told MULE:
“I have had ten years of experience with the Law Centre. It is the best I have ever known.
“Around 90% of all Somalis in Manchester are refugees or people seeking asylum. Back in our country there is no civil government and the fighting continues. Many of our people here are still waiting for their cases to be resolved. If South Manchester Law Centre closes then it is possible that their cases will be closed, as the [Greater Manchester] Immigration Aid Unit is losing much of its capacity. This means that they would be left without life, without hope”.
He went on to pay tribute to the links that the centre has forged with the community.
“Many of the Somali community lack language ability in English and so those of us who speak the language work together with the centre to give free translation. They have made us feel very welcome and have always given everybody excellent service.”
Immigration and asylum is just one area of SMLC’s work, with caseworkers also dedicated to housing, welfare and employment law.
At the centre of contention is the competitive tendering process by which contracts for immigration and asylum work were awarded. SMLC claim that the process was arbitrary and irrational as the selection criteria meant that there was a “winner takes all” system for providers with higher-accredited caseworkers, while it had not been made clear to centres, whose caseworkers could have applied for such accreditation, that it would be decisive.
Consequently in Manchester a single national provider won 75% of immigration contracts, leading to fears that the availability of independent services could be compromised. Voices within the legal aid sector have criticised the market-based nature of the regime as failing to look at the qualitative nature of legal casework, while arguing that the criteria in the process does not take into account the standard of services given by providers.
Supporters of the two centres hope that their case will be strengthened by a decision in September which overturned the allocation of family law contracts. They say there are marked similarities between the process for allocation of family and immigration contracts and are now calling on the LSC to back down from the SMLC and GMIAU’s legal challenge and “instead of wasting further public funds on expensive lawyers they should restore funding to make South Manchester Law Centre more sustainable”.
The full judicial review is due to take place in early January.
Michael Pooler
More: Cuts, Migration and asylum, News, Welfare
Comments
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‘This means that they would be left without life’
Er, no it wouldn’t. It’d mean they would have to pay for their own legal representation instead of having it paid for by others via taxation.
If these Somalis or anyone else wnats someone else to pay their legal fees then why not start a charity and see who will give voluntarily? Perhaps some lawyers might give their services on a charitable basis instead of working for wages at a so-called charity.
Comment by simon on November 16, 2010 at 2:35 pm -
[…] campaign to save SMLC garnered much public support, including that of local MP Gerald Kaufman. It once provided […]
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[…] on cuts being made to legal aid. GMIAU and South Manchester Law Centre have for many months been fighting funding cuts which they say will leave asylum seekers, who are not allowed to work, in particular in […]
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