In an official statement Jo Sidhu QC, Chair of The Criminal Bar Association provides more detail and more context on the CBA No Returns action planned for Monday 11th April 2022.
The statement begins:
On Monday 11th April 2022, criminal barristers across England & Wales will commence action to shine a spotlight on the severity of the ongoing crisis in the Criminal Justice System. The decision to take that action follows a ballot of members of the Criminal Bar Association in which 94% voted to withdraw their goodwill by no longer accepting return work.
We have made specific and reasonable demands that Government must act without further delay to address the chronic underfunding of the AGFS and, in particular, to implement an immediate and substantial improvement to fees in order to halt the alarming exodus of criminal barristers from publicly funded work. In responding to the recommendations of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid [CLAR], Government has manifestly failed to recognise the scale of the crisis and to act with the urgency required.
We have made specific and reasonable demands that Government must act without further delay to address the chronic underfunding of the AGFS and, in particular, to implement an immediate and substantial improvement to fees in order to halt the alarming exodus of criminal barristers from publicly funded work. In responding to the recommendations of the Independent Review of Criminal Legal Aid [CLAR], Government has manifestly failed to recognise the scale of the crisis and to act with the urgency required.
You can read the rest of the statement on the CBA No Returns action here.
Or you can read a short statement on why the decision to take the CBA’s No Returns action has been taken here.
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