Low Commission

"Hello, I'm Lord Colin Low and I am the chair of the Low Commission on the Future of Advice and Legal Support. I'd like to welcome you to the Commission's website and to explain briefly who we are and what we hope to do. People often remark that access to justice, especially for the poor and vulnerable, is the mark of a civilised society. But due to funding cuts for advice services and an increase in demand for these important services resulting from welfare reform and austerity measures, there is a real risk that individuals across the country won't be able to access the advice and support they need. Against this background, the Commission aims to develop a strategy for access to advice and support on social welfare law in England and Wales -- that's benefits, community care, debt, employment, housing, special educational needs, asylum and immigration, and other areas of public law such as judicial review. We will consult on emerging recommendations in September 2013 and will publish our final report in December 2013 The Commission will conduct its own research, but we want to bring together as much evidence, knowledge, experience and expertise as we can. If you can help us to build up a picture of the value of advice, the impact of the cuts and your ideas for getting the most out of the reduced resources which will be available after April 2013, then please visit the "Can you help?" page on our website. If you want to keep up to date with the work of the Commission, we'll keep a regular blog, we're on twitter and we'll be publishing reports of our meetings, discussion papers and evidence that we receive so please do keep your eye on this page. Thank you for watching, and we hope to hear from you very soon."