I am disturbed at the relative silence that prevails, when we are facing unprecedented cuts in legal aid and access to lawyers for many vulnerable people. On top of the 10% cut announced for family work from 3 October, we are entering a bid round that will lead to a number of the firms encouraged to expand to take on this area of work being denied sufficient bids to survive in their current format.

On top of that, we are faced with a legal aid bill proceeding through parliament with the likelihood that large areas of legal aid work will be removed. This is the most serious threat to public funding since legal aid was introduced and its effects are likely to be irreversible.

Ian Godfrey, Shepherd Harris, Enfield