I write in response to Gemma Bond’s letter.

Considering the struggling economy, legal aid cuts (particularly the Legal Services Commission’s training grant scheme), and concerns in relation to alternative business structures and changes to civil costs, the drop in training contracts is no surprise.

However, the continued profitability and expansion of Legal Practice Course and Bar Vocational Course providers is at odds with this statistic; a point that the Legal Services Board has sought to review.

To reinstate faith among potential law students, the conclusion from that review must be that a more proactive restriction of LPC/BVC entrants is required.

I would like to see a system akin to the route for doctors, where the numbers allowed into medical school are dependent upon estimated demand for the year that the entrants graduate, some five years later.

I do not subscribe to the view that a system like this may result in a skills shortage if there is a sudden upturn. There are a great many academically gifted paralegals (a number growing year upon year) more than capable of filling any shortfall.

If there were more certainty that any given LPC/BVC student would ultimately obtain employment, then the banks would review their position on graduate loans.

While I appreciate Ms Bond’s view, particularly as I am a newly qualified solicitor from a similar background, if there is little prospect of the student repaying their loan and soul-destroying interest (Ms Bond and I perhaps being exceptions to the rule), why throw good money after bad?

That’s just business.

Mark Bussey, W Brook & Co Ltd Solicitors, Rotherham