Both the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and Law Officers Department face falling budgets over the next three years, with legal aid savings amounting to almost £200 million, the Chancellor Alistair Darling announced this week.


The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) will lead to the MoJ's budget rising £9.5 billion to £9.7 billion, a 1.7% fall a year in real terms. The CSR said the MoJ 'will be taking forward value-for-money programmes, generating annual net cash-releasing savings of over £1 billion by 2010-11'. It specified that reform of legal aid will deliver savings of £193 million by 2010/11.



The Law Officers Department - which oversees the Crown Prosecution Service, Revenue & Customs Prosecutions Office, Serious Fraud Office and Treasury Solicitor's Department - will save £79 million, reducing its £732 million budget by 3.2%.