header-logo header-logo

Home Login E-newsletter About us
13 March 2017 / Steve Hynes
Issue: 7739 / Categories: Opinion , Legal aid focus , Profession
printer mail-detail

Criminal actions

© Copyright LexisNexis 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Will the government learn from past criminal legal aid mistakes, asks Steve Hynes

Michael Gove’s time at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) was mainly marked by a series of policy u-turns which dismantled the legacy of his predecessor, Chris Grayling, and earned him plaudits from the legal profession. For legal aid, it was the abandonment of two-tier contracts in criminal legal aid which was perhaps the most dramatic of his policy reversals. This was forced on him by a combination of effective campaigning by criminal legal aid lawyers and bad advice from his civil servants. Gove’s successor, Liz Truss, seems to not to have learnt any lessons from this debacle and is heading for another showdown with criminal legal aid lawyers.

Two-tier contracts

Successive legal aid administrators have been attracted to the idea of putting duty work for police and magistrates’ court work out to tender. In March 2009, the then Labour government announced it was going to introduce a system of best value tendering (BVT) for the work. At the time many practitioners

If you are not a subscriber, subscribe now to read this content
If you are already a subscriber sign in
...or Register for two weeks' free access to subscriber content

MOVERS & SHAKERS

Read All
Sponsored by
Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Arc Pensions Law—Matthew Swynnerton

Chair of the Association of Pension Lawyers joins as partner

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Ampa Group—Kamal Chauhan

Group names Shakespeare Martineau partner head of Sheffield office

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Blake Morgan—four promotions

Four legal directors promoted to partner across UK offices

NEWS
Read All
NLJ this week: Renters’ Rights revolution begins—brace for tribunal chaos

The abolition of assured shorthold tenancies and section 21 evictions marks the beginning of a ‘brave new world’ for England’s rental sector, writes Daniel Bacon of Seddons GSC

NLJ this week: Civil procedure gets a spring overhaul
Stephen Gold’s latest Civil Way column rounds up a flurry of procedural and regulatory changes reshaping housing, alternative dispute resolution (ADR) and personal injury litigation
NLJ this week: Why GP complaints are going nowhere
Patients are being systematically failed by an NHS complaints regime that is opaque, poorly enforced and often stacked against them, argues Charles Davey of The Barrister Group
NLJ this week: Prenups meet a jurisdictional brick wall
A wealthy Russian divorce battle has produced a sharp warning about trying to challenge foreign nuptial agreements in the wrong English court. Writing in NLJ this week, Vanessa Friend and Robert Jackson of Hodge Jones & Allen examine Timokhin v Timokhina, where the High Court enforced Russian judgments arising from a prenuptial agreement despite arguments based on the landmark Radmacher decision
NLJ this week: Has Rylands v Fletcher come back from the dead?
An obscure Victorian tort may be heading for an unexpected revival after a significant Privy Council ruling that could reshape liability for dangerous escapes, according to Richard Buckley, barrister and emeritus professor of law at the University of Reading
Copyright © 2026 LexisNexis
back-to-top-scroll