Cut to the bone

Solicitors who provide legal aid services are among the worst paid in the public sector, according to a survey by The Guardian newspaper.

Their average salary is below £25,000, which is less than prison officers and sewage plant workers, and well below typical salaries of police officers, nurses and secondary school teachers.

Expressing concern at government plans to further cut legal aid fees, Law Society chief executive Des Hudson said: “There is no scope left for cutting fees.”