Pressure is mounting on the government to abolish fees for child care application proceedings following two parliamentary interventions.

Lord Laming (pictured), who investigated the deaths of Victoria Climbié and Baby P, told MPs last week that he sees no need for fees. Meanwhile Sir Alan Beith MP, chairman of the House of Commons justice committee, accused the government of breaking its own rules in consulting on lawyers’ fees.

Laming was giving evidence to the ­children, schools and families select committee, following the publication of his review into the protection of children following the Baby P case. He told MPs: ‘I do not understand the purpose of these charges at all. In a way it is the state charging the state. The administrative costs must be considerable. It should be removed.’

Fees for public law child care applications rose from £150 to £4,825 last May and the government has agreed to review the cost structure.

During the 90 minutes of questioning, Lord Laming also told MPs that ‘too many people in the frontline are not well-equipped’ when it comes to legislation.

Meanwhile, the justice committee accused the government of breaching the Cabinet Office’s code on consultations in the way it has carried out the consultation on family legal aid funding. The consultation closes tomorrow – ahead of the publication of research commissioned by the Legal Services Commission on the provision of family legal aid work.

Beith has written to justice secretary Jack Straw asking him to defer the consultation deadline: ‘He [Straw] shouldn’t simply interpret the advice in the research himself and make a decision without allowing anyone else to comment.’

The Legal Services Commission said it had commissioned the research ‘to better understand the market for family barristers. As a courtesy, we have informed our stakeholders that we are carrying out this research and, also as a courtesy, we will share the final report with them. Stakeholders do not need the information in the report in order to respond to the current consultation, which focuses on the structure of the fee schemes.’