The Department for Constitutional Affairs' legal aid impact test does not guarantee that additional funds will be made available to meet the resource implications of new legislation (see [2005] Gazette, 8 September, 1).

An equally important reform would be to set in place an institutional framework that makes some assessment of cases at the investigation stage, and that carries out a cost-benefit analysis of the decision to prosecute. There are currently news headlines of an impending prosecution of drug companies' employees for a conspiracy to defraud the NHS. It would be far better if this type of case were dealt with by civil litigation and contractual sanction, and not by criminal prosecution. It is typical of the kind of case that will absorb many millions of pounds of legal aid funding for an uncertain benefit.


Greg Powell, Powell Spencer & Partners, London