Criminal justice minister Baroness Scotland of Asthal QC, looked a bit taken aback by the barrage of accusing questions on legal aid she received while taking part in the president's forum in Birmingham. You have to wonder how - having spent a couple of years with the legal aid brief at the then Lord Chancellor's Department, she could appear surprised that legal aid solicitors are not exactly content with their lot. One of five panellists, she treated the auditorium to a lengthy exposition of how IT is being used in the criminal courts, and then raised probably the biggest laugh of the entire two days when she announced, in response to the first legal aid question: 'I want to leave you in no doubt whatsoever how highly legal aid practitioners are valued by this government.' Similarly hollow laughter rang out from legal aid lawyers the following day, when senior Legal Services Commission official Richard Collins - who otherwise went down well by portraying a commission far more sympathetic to solicitors than in the past - struggled when asked if he agreed there were so-called advice deserts. He spluttered something about how there were indications in some places that coverage was getting 'a bit thin', but couldn't bring himself to use the phrase itself.