The Justice Commons Select Committee has announced an inquiry into access to justice. Following recent inquiries by the Committee into the Future of Legal Aid and the impact of civil legal ad funding, this inquiry will consider how the provision of legal advice and representation, have developed in response to the restrictions on the provision of legal aid. It will focus on the scope for future innovation in the nature of services, funding, regulation and technology to support effective access to justice in England and Wales. In its call for evidence, the Committee invites evidence submissions by Tuesday, 30 September 2025 at 23:59 addressing the questions posed on its website.
This inquiry is of direct relevance to the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies Nuffield funded research on ‘Creating a New Mixed Funding Model for Free Legal Advice.’ The project team are particularly interested in providing an evidence base in debate about how free legal advice is being used to support access to justice and the extent of reliance being placed on it; how the current state of funding for free legal advice affect access to justice for clients; the role of advice services in supporting access to justice; the funding options which would increase access to justice and priority areas for spending.
Our research team will be providing further updates and our response to the call for evidence on this site.