The government appears to remain defiant over its controversial criminal legal aid reform package after a solicitors’ group invited the new lord chancellor to discuss its concerns.
The Criminal Law Solicitors Association has invited Brandon Lewis CBE MP to attend its annual conference next month in an open letter published on its website.
After explaining the role of criminal defence solicitors, the association told the lord chancellor that the duty solicitor scheme was ‘close to collapse’. Barnstaple only has one duty solicitor and schemes in Skegness, Isle of Wight and Ceredigion are ‘barely functioning’, the letter says.
As the Gazette reported last month, the government has been scrambling to ensure sufficient duty coverage in Barnstaple that could see solicitors facing a three-hour round trip - or possibly longer – to give police station advice.
Lewis was told it would be wrong to assume solicitors accepted the reform package because they are not ‘striking’ like the criminal bar.
‘There is wholesale discontentment amongst our members as the profession reaches breaking point… The figures are stark. In 2010 there were 1,688 criminal legal aid firms. There are now just 964, a drop of 43% in firms offering advice to those who cannot afford to pay and require Legal Aid. This dramatic fall in the number of firms is not just a result of a consolidation of the market, as the number of Duty Solicitors has also fallen substantially from 5,240 solicitors in 2017, to 3825 this year, a 28% collapse in just 5 years.’
The association said the government’s reform package, in response to the Bellamy review, ‘reflects neither the urgency that Sir Christopher recognised nor the bare minimum level of increase required and will do nothing to mitigate or curtail the continuing fall away of the numbers of duty solicitors’.
Its letter concluded: ‘We should be glad of the opportunity to meet with you at any time to discuss the above and to work with you to ensure a sustainable criminal justice system to allow your government to meet its stated aims of reducing crime and punishing offenders.’
Asked about the letter, a Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘We are investing an extra £135m a year in criminal legal aid and we fast tracked legislation meaning duty solicitors will start receiving a 15% pay increase from the end of September. We will respond with further proposals in response to Lord Bellamy’s review in due course.’
The department said criminal solicitors would receive a 15% increase for their work in police stations, magistrates’ and youth courts, with ‘further multi-million pound reforms to solicitors’ pay still under consideration’.
Lewis is due to meet the Criminal Bar Association on Tuesday to discuss its demands.
This article is now closed for comment.
8 Readers' comments