Lord Justice Jackson's speech to Cambridge University

The extent of public funding which can be devoted to legal aid is of course a matter for Parliament, not for the judiciary to decide. Nevertheless, in order to dispel the confusion which has arisen, let me make it plain that the cutbacks in legal aid are contrary to the recommendations in my report. Discussion of legal aid is contained in chapter 12 of the Costs Review Preliminary Report and chapter 7 of the Costs Review Final Report. In the Final Report I resisted the strong temptation to recommend that legal aid be restored to its scope pre-April 2000 (although many consultees urged me to make such a recommendation), because I recognised that such a proposal would be unrealistic and would stand no chance of implementation. I did, however, state as follows in chapter 4.2 of chapter 7: