MPs asked to support fragile legal aid system

MPs have been briefed on the fragile state of criminal legal aid before this week’s crucial Westminster Hall debate on the future of legal aid.
Andrew Holroyd, vice president of the Law Society, says the society has circulated a full briefing paper to all MPs in England and Wales, outlining its concerns about the effects of Lord Carter’s proposals for overhauling legal aid.

“It’s vital that we get as much interest as we can from MPs and explain to them just how desperate the legal aid system is and how bad things are getting because of lack of funding and the need for further investment.
“When you consider just how paltry increases in legal aid rates have been since 1993 up to the present time—probably less than 1% per annum over those 13 years when the costs of supplying the service have gone up over 40%—there is very little fat in the system left to cut.

The government is risking a lot by pushing practitioners further down a road where people are saying what’s the point of being in this game any more—we just can’t make it pay.”

Concerns about Lord Carter’s proposals to reduce the £2bn legal aid budget and introduce price-competitive tendering will also be discussed by society
members at a special general neeting on legal aid on 17 January, after Southampton solicitor, Roger Peach, rallied support for direct action.
Holroyd says: “There isn’t an awful lot of difference between us and Mr Peach.

We all are extremely concerned about the
situation in relation to criminal legal aid. We think it’s wholly
unreasonable—when it’s clear that the supplier base is very fragile—for the government to be making more cuts to the system.”

Meanwhile the society and the Bar Council are pressing members of the House of Lords to consider key amendments to the Legal
Services Bill.

Bar Council chairman, Geoffrey Vos QC, says: “We support the main thrust of the Legal Services Bill, but there is a real risk of its true goals being impeded if it is not now made the subject of detailed fine-tuning by the House of Lords.”