The SL5 Legal team are extremely grateful to the prisons across the UK that continue to arrange private legal meetings for us with our clients, via video-links and telephone conferences. However, the approach is far from consistent and many prisons do not have access to the facilities required. This impedes prisoners’ access to justice.
Further to the letter detailed in our post on 1st April, the letter below is again co-authored by SL5’s Managing Director Andrew Sperling on behalf of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group and Rikki Garg on behalf of The Association of Prison Lawyers. They invite Rt Hon Robert Buckland QC, politician and barrister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, to urgently discuss how meaningful access to legal assistance and advice across all areas of law for prisoners can be protected during lockdown.