Justice for all?

It’s fair to say that the justice system in the UK isn’t perfect – but are we currently in the midst of a crisis when it comes to law and order? In this fivepart series, the Law Society’s Solicitor of the Year Ayesha Nayyar and eminent criminal barrister Chris Daw QC take a look at the current situation.

“We look at different parts of the criminal justice system, including police and prisons,” Ayesha tells Inside TV. “And the programme is two different views: there’s mine, which is that we aren’t tough enough, and there’s Chris’, which is that we are too tough and we need to become more lenient.”

“We’re covering literally the whole 360 of criminal justice,” adds Chris. “I don’t think this has been done before – there have been series about prisons, about police, about the courts and so on – but we’ve done the lot in one go.”

Each of the first four episodes focuses on a different element of the system, and in Friday’s final episode, Ayesha and Chris will be going head-to-head.

“At the end of the week, we convene in front of a jury of normal, everyday people,” reveals Ayesha. “And we put our cases to them, asking the question: are we tough enough, yes or no?”

And while Ayesha and Chris are both passionate about their arguments, they each admit that they reflected on their beliefs while making the show.

“We’re both lawyers, so we’re open to listening to arguments from the other side,” points out Ayesha. “It certainly challenged my views in some areas and probably put me off the ‘lock them up and throw away the key’ approach that I had at the start of the programme. Maybe I softened!”

“I think we both went into it with a more extreme position than we ended up with,” agrees Chris. “I interviewed two families who had lost their sons to knife murder, and for me as a defence lawyer, to meet the people who are the direct victims of the worst possible crime of all, that was something that struck me really hard.”

This morning’s episode looks at the courts system, as Ayesha meets acid attack survivor Adele Bellis to hear her experience of being in court, and how she was treated by the defence barrister.