General Election 2019 – CBA Release
GE2019 Conservative majority government. CBA view “Get Justice Done! Brexit or no Brexit, without billions of reinvestment back into the entire criminal justice system, the United Kingdom gets undone.”
Criminal Bar Association chair Caroline Goodwin QC said “There is no option left for any Government but to invest properly and substantially in the criminal justice system from end to end. To do anything less would be criminally reckless with all our lives – rich or poor, state or private, we are all in this together. Now Get Justice Done.”
Caroline Goodwin QC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said:
“Get justice done! Brexit or no Brexit, without billions of reinvestment back into the entire criminal justice system, the United Kingdom gets undone.
We welcome the new Government but there is no new magic cure for a broken justice system. Our message is simple: invest, invest and invest again. Don’t salami-slice which part of the MOJ or Home Office budgets will get a small boost according to political expediency. A penny pinched from one part costs us all pounds elsewhere. Being serious about law and order means being serious about investment. No gimmicks. No half-truths or vague promises will do. The public must be kept safe and nothing less will do.
We don’t ask, we demand this: invest equally in prosecution and legal aid defence services to ensure crimes are reported, investigated and seen through swiftly to the outcomes needed in order to maintain public safety while not leaving the innocent in limbo for years, waiting to get back to their ordinary lives.
If we care about the national health service then we must care also about the criminal justice system – the two are inextricably linked. Just as we must invest in the police, forensic services, CPS and legal aid, so we must equally invest in prisons and the parole service alongside repairing an underfunded NHS and a failing social care policy. Fail to invest across the systems and more vulnerable people will fall through the cracks. Joined up investment is needed in justice as in health services to keep the public safe from harm and the mentally unwell protected from themselves and others, rather than stretching further our overcrowded prisons, or breaking an already stretched health service.
If we care about state education for the country’s children of today and adults of tomorrow future, we must also invest in our youth justice system. If we care about our elderly we have to invest in the police – at least another 50,000 to more than make up for the 21,000 cut – to prevent acts of public harm.
If we want the economy to flourish, we need a proper functioning criminal justice system – the very foundation upon which the rule of law can stably operate and upon which all businesses rely for investment, jobs and wealth creation. Scrimp on justice and you eat away at business, destroying our entire economy upon which all our societal investment depends for tax revenues.
There is no option left for any Government but to invest properly and substantially in the criminal justice system from end to end. To do anything less would be criminally reckless with all our lives – rich or poor, state or private, we are all in this together. Now Get Justice Done.” Ends
Press Enquiries:
James Rossiter
Director of communications at the Criminal Bar Association (CBA)
07985117887
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