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Legal Aid, Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Bill

My Lords, I briefly support the amendment by echoing the words that have already been quoted—those of the Lord Chancellor, who said: "““access to justice is a hallmark of a civilised society””,—[Official Report, Commons, 15/11/10; col. 659.]" and those of my noble friend Lord Pannick, who has said repeatedly that access to justice is a vital constitutional principle. At Second Reading, I regretted that the word ““rehabilitation”” had been replaced by the word ““punishment”” in the title of this Bill, and I fear that the proposed denial of legal aid to some for whom its provision is a vital part of their rehabilitation suggests that there are some in government who are allowing an uncivilised concentration on punishment to supersede their duty to protect the public. I know that this is a hybrid Bill and that Part 3 will concentrate on rehabilitation, but I wish I felt the same of Part 1.