Over 60 percent think public lacks enough access to justice: Bar Council of England and Wales poll
According to the “Access to justice: the view from the Bar” report, newly released by the Bar Council of England and Wales, some barristers surveyed said they were “ashamed” of the state of the justice system.
Last year, the Bar Council conducted its biannual survey of the UK profession called “Barristers' Working Lives.”
According to the Bar Council’s press release, 62 barristers polled described the justice system as “broken,” while others lamented that there were too many issues with the system to count.
“The justice system should be treated like a vital public service – like schools and hospitals,” said Kirsty Brimelow, the Bar Council’s chair. “Our legal services market is second only to the US – we have a fantastic reputation abroad but more needs to be done to serve justice for citizens at home.”
The Bar Council’s report reflected 3,669 barristers’ responses to a question about access to justice. Of barristers asked whether the members of the public had access to justice at an acceptable level:
When excluding those who did not know from these results, 74 percent did not believe the public had sufficient access to justice, while 26 percent thought people did have enough access.
Of the 2,714 barristers who answered no to the question of whether the public could access adequate access to justice, 2,477 respondents explained why. Their written responses mentioned the following problems:
The survey also identified the following issues:
“For too long, the justice system has only been functioning because it has been propped up by the goodwill of those who work within it,” Brimelow said. “Those people are now weary, stressed and depleted.”
Brimelow called for real and long-term systemic improvements within the justice system.
“A properly functioning justice system is a cornerstone of a democratic society,” Brimelow said. “We will continue to represent our members’ views and seek remedy for our justice system that has been largely left to crumble through wilful neglect over decades.”
Here are some other news stories involving the Bar Council of England and Wales.
Barbara Mills, then chair of the UK Bar Council, commented that the 2025 statistics on the diversity of England and Wales’ judiciary showed that much more work needed to be done to improve diversity.
On 27 May 2025, the UK Bar Council echoed the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe’s support for the removed president of the Istanbul Bar Association and the 10 dismissed members of its Bar Council.
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