During a meeting at the Labour Party conference, legal aid minister, Lord Bach, apparently refused to answer a question on the strategic future of the LSC.

A refusal that prompted one observer to comment: ‘That says it all’.

If the MoJ is simply going to announce policy changes over the heads of the LSC, as it did with the summer consultation on cuts to criminal legal aid rates, surely it diminishes the function of the LSC to a purely administrative one.

The consultation announced by the MoJ meant that the LSC, which is busily trying to work out its strategy for the introduction of best value tendering, had to postpone the tendering process for the new criminal contracts, as people could not reasonably be expected to apply for contracts without knowing the fee rates.

So if the LSC is only performing an administrative task, wouldn’t it be cheaper for the MoJ to hive off that function to some provider of business support services?

With the talk of public spending cuts, and economists advising the government to reduce its spending on the superfluous bodies it sponsors, the emasculated LSC looks like a prime candidate.