Lawyers have called on the Ministry of Justice to give details of how it intends to cut £350m from the legal aid budget, following the outcome of the government’s spending review, announced last week.

Chancellor George Osborne told the House of Commons that the MoJ’s current budget of £8.9bn a year will fall to £7bn by 2014/15.

The MoJ said savings would come from measures including a £1bn reduction in its administration costs, reform of sentencing and prisons, and reducing the legal aid budget by £350m.

The ministry said it will launch a consultation on proposals to reform the legal aid system, but did not disclose when this will be published. It will issue a green paper on sentencing reform this autumn.

Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Carol Storer said: ‘The cuts are in line with what had been flagged up, but the real story is when the MoJ is going to give us the details of its reform programme. We need to have this soon.’

Ian Kelcey, chair of the Law Society’s criminal law committee, echoed Storer’s call for more information, adding that ‘the devil will be in the detail’. He said the government should steer clear from interfering with police station advice or cutting fee rates. ‘The government has to understand that we have given our 25% cuts over recent years, and we can’t afford further cuts,’ he said.

David Emmerson, chair of Resolution’s legal aid committee, said he is waiting for the MoJ’s business plan to disclose the details of the savings it seeks to make, but warned against making savings from family legal aid at the expense of access to justice.