Kenneth Clarke today ruled out further legal aid cuts in addition to those already signalled, following the apparent u-turn earlier this week over his proposed sentencing reforms.
Speaking to the Law Society’s Junior Lawyers Division today, the justice secretary confirmed that ‘the flurry of nonsense’ in recent days over reform of sentencing ‘will not lead to more cuts in legal aid’.
A Ministry of Justice spokesman confirmed the pledge.
The £2bn legal aid budget is already facing cuts of £350 million, and it had been feared that the Ministry of Justice might look to plunder the pot afresh if it is unable to make the £130m planned savings from its sentencing reforms.
Chancery Lane’s head of legal aid policy Richard Miller said: ‘It’s reassuring to know that things are not going to be even worse than they already looked.
‘However, we still hope that the MoJ will work with us to find a way to make the savings they need without doing the damage that their original proposals would cause.’
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