Give legal aid to the families of the Birmingham Pub bombing victims
3 min read
On Tuesday I will be leading a Westminster Hall debate calling for legal aid to be granted to the families of the victims of the Birmingham Pub Bombings, writes Richard Burden.
At around 8:20pm on 21 November 1974, two explosions took place in two pubs in Birmingham, the Mulberry Bush and the Tavern in the Town. A third bomb placed at Barclays Bank on Hagley Road was defused that same evening. Twenty-one innocent people were killed that night and some 222 others were left with injuries and trauma which would affect their lives for many years to come. The families and friends of those victims have felt 43 years of the pain of that loss ever since.
Six innocent men were jailed for the outrage. It took too long for that miscarriage of justice to be put right. Nobody, however, has ever been arrested and charged with the bombings since the release of the Birmingham Six. This has made that loss and pain of the families of the victims of the bombings all the more difficult. But it has been worse for them than that.
For years, the families have had to overcome hurdle after hurdle just to get answers about what happened on that fateful day. They had to fight for the inquest into the bombings to be re-opened and they had to fight to be granted legal aid to be represented at that inquest. And now, having eventually won those battles, they have once again been denied legal aid for a judicial review.
This time, the issue is a ruling by the Coroner that people suspected of carrying out the pub bombings cannot be identified at the inquest. The families contested that ruling at the High Court and won. The Coroner has responded by taking the case to a judicial review at the Court of Appeal, as he has every right to do. Whereas public funds will be available to present the Coroner’s appeal against the High Court’s judgement, however, the families have been told they will have to pay for their own legal representation to defend the judgement.
The fact that different conclusions were reached by the High Court and the Coroner – himself a senior QC - underlines that the case raises difficult and complex legal issues. It can therefore only be in the interest of justice that both sides should have equal resources to present their respective cases. It is significant that the Coroner himself has supported public funds being made available for the legal representation of the families. The Legal Aid Agency, however, are insisting that the rules prevent them from providing such assistance for the families at judicial review, even though they were finally granted legal aid for representation at the Inquest itself – after a long battle which they won in 2016.
If indeed for whatever reason – as inconsistent as it may appear – it is the case that the families are not eligible for legal aid, my request to the government is to step in and directly authorise public funding to be made available outside of the regular legal aid framework for the families.
All Birmingham MPs are backing this call. This is simply about fairness and parity. Justice demands no less.
Richard Burden is Labour MP for Birmingham Northfield. His Westminster Hall debate will take place on Tuesday 27 March.
PoliticsHome Newsletters
Get the inside track on what MPs and Peers are talking about. Sign up to The House's morning email for the latest insight and reaction from Parliamentarians, policy-makers and organisations.
