Suspects’ rights to consult a solicitor of their choice have been undermined by potentially illegal reforms to the legal aid process, leading academics said this week.

Professors Lee Bridges and Ed Cape, of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, accused the government of rushing the introduction of new telephone services in an attempt to cut costs. The Law Society called for an independent review.

The professors express their concerns in a report, CDS Direct: Flying in the face of the evidence, which examines the introduction of the Criminal Defence Service (Direct), under which detainees receive legal advice by telephone. The report also looks at the Duty Solicitors Call Scheme, which routes requests for representation through a central call system.

The authors conclude that, while the government pays lip service to quality, its main aims were to reduce costs, secure convictions and to ‘limit access to legal services’.

The report says the new services were: not properly evaluated before introduction; forced through after inadequate consultation and a botched parliamentary process; of questionable legality under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. It added that they may also contravene the European Convention on Human Rights.

Prof Bridges said: ‘The new CDS Direct scheme seems to be giving greater priority to meeting the demands of government ministers to drastically curtail legal aid costs than the duty to promote citizens’ access to legal advice and assistance.’

A Law Society spokeswoman said: ‘In the light of this devastating critique from two distinguished professors, who are so well respected in the field of criminal justice, we will be writing to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) calling on it to undertake a full and independent review of its operation, with all options, including abolition, on the table.’

Rodney Warren, chairman of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, described the report as ‘the voice of common sense’, but added: ‘I have no confidence it will make any difference unless the National Audit Office [which is considering a study on legal aid] picks it up.’

The MoJ said the new services had not undermined suspects’ rights. ‘The government’s reforms are designed to encourage efficiency, quality and good practice and will enable more people to be helped with good legal advice,’ a spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the charity AdviceUK said the government’s changes to civil legal aid advice would damage services.