The justice secretary has confirmed that the government will publish a consultation on the introduction of competitive tendering for criminal defence services this year.

In a letter to the Bar Council chair Peter Lodder QC, Kenneth Clarke sets out the government’s intention to press ahead with plans to reform criminal legal aid, despite concerns raised by the legal profession.

Clarke was responding to the Bar Council’s worries over the reform programme passed to him via attorney general Dominic Grieve QC. He said: ‘It remains our intention to introduce price competition in legal aid work, initially in crime but eventually across all legal aid services.

‘We expect that, in common with other public services, this will involve improved and less bureaucratic ways of engaging with suppliers on the part of the government, and new ways of working on the part of suppliers, maximising the efficiencies and benefits of new technologies and alternative methods of working.’

He said the government believes that the introduction of price competition will encourage a sustainable base of suppliers in the long term by allowing the market to set the price for services, and by fostering innovation and efficiency on the part of providers.

Clarke dismissed money-saving ideas that had been suggested by the Bar Council and others, saying the government had considered them ‘carefully’, but believed they did not represent ‘realistic’ alternatives.

In particular, Clarke was unimpressed with the suggestion that restrained assets could be used to fund defence fees. ‘Using restrained assets to pay for the costs of the legal defence would reduce the value of assets available for confiscation under any subsequent recovery proceedings. We therefore concluded that unfreezing restrained assets was unlikely to achieve any significant overall savings.’

Clarke also appeared to reject the argument that reducing legal aid fees would have a negative impact on the diversity of the legal profession and the judiciary. He said ensuring equality of opportunity across the profession was a matter for the Bar Council and Law Society, and not the primary responsibility of the Ministry of Justice.

John Cooper QC, a criminal barrister at London chambers 25 Bedford Row, said the bar needs to change its strategy in tackling the reforms. He told the Gazette: ‘This is the clearest indication yet of the government’s continued strategy, not only when it comes to the legal profession, but also to publicly funded defence services.'

He said Clarke ‘seems to have ignored the majority of the observations made to him by the legal profession’. He said: ‘The bar’s strategy to date has been based on mutual trust, but as this letter demonstrates, that trust has been misplaced.’

Cooper urged the profession to take its arguments to the wider public rather than continue trying to persuade a government that is ‘showing only lip service’ to the consultation process.

Cooper condemned competitive tendering as an extension of the 'Tesco law’ approach to delivering legal services, offering a 'cheap and cheerful’ service that would not provide the best quality or most appropriate representation. 'Competitive tendering is appropriate when it comes deciding who is going to construct the Olympic Stadium, but is not appropriate to find the best advocate to help keep a single mother out of prison.’

Cooper said fee cuts would erode the work done by the legal professions to increase diversity, by removing the ability of people from all backgrounds to be able to undertake publicly funded work.

'What Mr Clarke, or those who wrote that letter, do not seem to realise is the effect that the fee cuts will have, particularly on those individuals at the beginning of their careers, who are not able to pay their bills. Publicly funded criminal defence work will become an area of work that can only done by people who are wealthy.’

Read the full letter.