Law Centres to join Covid-19 Inquiry

LCN’s participation will be through the Justice Sector Coalition, that is made up of justice sector membership bodies, also including the Housing Law Practitioners Association and the Legal Aid Practitioners Group. The Coalition is represented by one of LCN’s members, Public Interest Law Centre.

Core Participants are recognised as having a significant interest in the inquiry. Beyond giving evidence, they can also inform the Inquiry by making statements and suggesting expert witnesses, material to disclose and questions for Inquiry hearings.

Module 10 had its preliminary hearing on Tuesday, 18th February. The final module of the Inquiry, it will cover the impact of the pandemic and lockdown on wider society, having already dedicated modules to the care sector, children and young people, preparedness, and the economic response. The Inquiry will pay particular attention to the pandemic’s effect on key workers, vulnerable people and the bereaved.

LCN’s member Public Interest Law Centre also represents other Module 10 Core Participants, as well as Core Participants in previous modules. In these, they have told the impact of the pandemic and the government’s decisions on survivors of domestic abuse, precariously employed workers across the healthcare system, and on refugees and migrants. In Module 10, LCN has asked the Inquiry to look, among others, at the effect of the pandemic on the justice sector and its workers, and also the vulnerable people that Law Centres support: the effect on them of lack of access to justice, or the sudden disconnection from support services and social isolation.

Joe Latimer, the solicitor leading Public Interest Law Centre’s work on the Covid-19 Inquiry, said:

“Justice sector workers provided vital services during the pandemic: helping victims escape abuse, working people challenge unfair employers and access financial support, and a whole lot more. Simply put, the resilience of the justice system and its workers is everyone’s concern. This inquiry provides a unique opportunity to explain why.”

Vauxhall Law Centre is based in Liverpool, which was one of the worst hit areas in the early pandemic, and has launched a dedicated service to support bereaved families. Its director, Ngaryan Li, said:

“As in-person advice halted and courts went online, some of the most vulnerable were shut out from justice. Meanwhile, as the Covid-19 death rate increased, there was a vacuum of support for the newly bereaved. It was down to the Law Centre to fill these gaps.”

Greater Manchester comprises a region of three million people across ten metropolitan boroughs, for whom Greater Manchester Law Centre is the only Law Centre. Its director, Jason Tetley, said:

“The pandemic stretched an already overworked and underpaid advice sector much further. Many more people were put in desperate situations that required legal redress, but access to this proved difficult. Six months after the pandemic we had less specialist advice provision than before it with a court system desperate to clear its backlogs—our community and sector is living with the ramifications.”