Law centres provide a vital service, so why are they being starved of funding? - Andrew Stevenson

Hardly a year seems to elapse without news of at least one of Scotland’s law centres in the mire due to a refusal by the government to provide funds. Last year Castlemilk Law and Money Advice Centre was turned down by Glasgow City Council and faced a grim future until this crass decision was reversed.
Andrew Stevenson is Secretary of the Scottish Law Agents SocietyAndrew Stevenson is Secretary of the Scottish Law Agents Society
Andrew Stevenson is Secretary of the Scottish Law Agents Society

Mike Dailly rightly observed that in the aftermath of lockdown, with all the financial hardship caused to the public, it would have been simply reckless to have cut funding of the services provided by law centres and Citizens’ Advice Bureaux. But still the underfunding goes on. This summer Govanhill Law Centre’s application for a grant was rejected by the Scottish Government. These failures to fund can be fatal to such a centre; in 2018 Renfrewshire Law Centre went under due to a refusal by the local authority to provide cash that may have kept it afloat.

Law centres provide an invaluable service in helping Scottish citizens in areas of law too complex, unremunerative and demanding to attract other legal professionals. The contribution they make cannot be overestimated.

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I vividly recall the help provided by the solicitors of the Legal Services Agency (LSA) in the eviction (more euphemistically named the “heritable”) court in Glasgow. A more dismal and tedious environment it was hard to envisage, with all the charm and hope of Guantanamo Bay. Hours passed whilst the court heard the same ugly accounts of drink, illness, loan sharks, addiction or more often simply people who were utterly hopeless in managing their money. The lawyers who appeared here regularly had a thankless and stressful task, but there is no doubt that, but for the diligence and resilience of the LSA solicitors in representing tenants, more families and vulnerable individuals would have been made homeless. Lawyers from other law centres were equally effective.

It is therefore disgraceful that on a yearly basis such centres have to face insecurity over funding. Those who work there should not have to endure feeling so unappreciated and unrewarded. What is more scandalous is that the sums required to keep centres open are relatively modest.

Govanhill Law Centre, in the First Minister’s constituency, has just been refused a grant of £75,000. Compare this to the basic annual salary of an MSP - about £65,000. It is all very commendable seeking to incorporate UN Conventions into Scottish domestic law. None of this will actually provide a roof over anyone’s head.

To achieve that result requires that lawyers get their hands dirty at the coal face, pursuing remedies and practical outcomes. This is where law centres are uniquely placed, with specialists in housing, debt and benefits law, and experts with experience in protecting women and children from domestic abuse and exploitation.

Without them, the reality is that unmet legal needs will stay unmet. If one out of 129 MSPs had to lose his job to enable Govanhill Law Centre to get the funding that it needs, it is hard to believe that anyone would notice that redundancy.

However, all these sums pale into insignificance against the astronomical sums of taxpayers’ money being paid to those targeted by the malicious prosecutions brought by the Crown Office in the wake of the demise of Rangers F.C. It is baffling that more attention has not been focussed on this debacle, and the ineptitude and lack of accountability of those in charge.

Malicious prosecution is supposed to be the stuff of theory, or of former Soviet backwaters, not reality in 21st century Scotland. As well as being a national embarrassment, it is a criminal waste of money. This month we learnt that Charles Green, Rangers’ former chief executive, is to receive £6,300,000 in compensation, more than a pound from every man, woman and child north of the Border. Yet Mr Green is only one recipient of the vast sums being paid from the public purse by our prosecution service.

The final bill for this fiasco will be staggering. Meanwhile law centres are starved of a meagre fraction of this colossal sum and too many of our citizens are thereby deprived of access to justice.

Andrew Stevenson is Secretary, Scottish Law Agents Society