Fears that the government may be planning to implement even deeper cuts to legal aid than it has already signalled rose significantly today.
Prime minister David Cameron is widely reported to have shelved key parts of justice secretary Kenneth Clarke’s plan to give offenders a 50% reduction in jail terms in return for early guilty pleas.
This will mean more savings will have to be found from elsewhere in Clarke’s departmental budget, and may partly explain why publication of the forthcoming Justice Bill outlining the legal aid reforms has been delayed.
The sentencing reforms were expected to save £130m from the MoJ budget.
The Gazetteexclusively reported a week ago that the government may be planning to cut legal aid further following Clarke’s politically maladroit remarks about rape sentencing.
Sources told the Gazette then that Legal Services Commission Carolyn Downs had indicated that the government was reviewing its sentencing policy and would be looking to make increased savings elsewhere.
The remarks were allegedly made at two controversial meetings held by the LSC with large providers of legal aid.
The LSC denied Downs had confirmed this to the meetings, stating that the perception had arisen from ‘leading questions’ put to her on which she refused to commit herself.
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