The Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) has finally heeded long-standing calls from lawyers to ensure the whole government addresses the impact on legal aid when formulating policy.

Launching unprecedented guidance calling for better joined-up thinking, the DCA has set out a two-stage test for civil servants in all departments, with the first phase requiring proposals outlining the aims, timescales, potential changes and commitments of their proposals if they might affect the legal aid fund. The second stage involves submitting an estimate of costs.


The guidance insists: 'Whenever consideration is being given to the introduction of new criminal sanctions or civil penalties, we must be consulted at an early stage in the development of the proposal. It will always be necessary to discuss and agree the consequences, including the resource implications, of the new proposal for the workload of the courts and legal aid. Central to this consideration will be the completion of a legal aid impact test.'


Roy Morgan, chairman of the Legal Aid Practitioners Group, said the move was 'long overdue'. He added: 'We have been saying this for many years. When [former Legal Services Commission chief executive] Steve Orchard was retiring, he said government departments should either take legal aid funding into consideration or drop the policy, and we echo that.'


Roger Smith, director of lawyers' human rights group Justice, described it as a 'desirable development'. He added: 'It's the right thing to do and is way overdue. Now we have to see what difference it makes.'


The DCA's move came in the same week that Law Society President Kevin Martin wrote a stinging letter to Chancellor Gordon Brown calling for more money for legal aid in the next spending review.


He criticised the government for its 'poor planning' and lack of forward thinking, also arguing that lawyers had been unfairly blamed for rising costs. 'The original vision for legal aid when it was introduced was that it should be a front-line service alongside health and education,' he told Mr Brown.


'The reality is very different, yet legal aid can play a key role in protecting rights and tackling social exclusion. Insufficient funding for legal aid can lead to greater expenditure down the line for the state through greater demand for intervention by social services.'


A Treasury spokeswoman said it would be considering the implications of all its policies on all departments in the comprehensive spending review.