The clock is ticking on the lord chancellor to commit to substantially increase legal aid funding or face a potential strike by the criminal bar – as latest government figures show the legal aid sector continuing to shrink.
The Criminal Bar Association will ballot members on action if the government fails to undertake by Monday to expedite its response to the criminal legal aid review, which recommended an extra £135m a year to nurse the system back to health.
In his latest update, CBA chair Jo Sidhu QC said that in the 20 days that have passed since hundreds of criminal barristers signalled their willingness to take action if the government fails to move faster, Dominic Raab ‘has responded with nothing other than deafening silence’.
The government has promised to respond to Sir Christopher Bellamy’s recommendations by the end of March and defended its timetable. However, Sidhu said the government did not require a further three months, following their response, to consult, ‘a timetable that pushes us to the end of June’.
He added: ‘If you thought that prospect was depressing enough, then you certainly will not welcome a further update from officials at the MoJ who tell us that, in the wake of the consultation, government will need until the end of September 2022 before any necessary statutory instrument can be drafted and brought into effect’.
Reform cannot come soon enough for the criminal legal aid sector, whose numbers have been falling since 2012. The number of firms with a criminal legal aid contract fell from 1,080 last September to 1,067 last month; for civil legal aid, the number fell from 1,401 to 1,381 over the same period.
Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: 'We are continuing to see the number of firms with criminal and civil legal aid contracts falling. This further illustrates what Sir Christopher Bellamy, chair of the independent review of criminal legal aid, described at the justice select committee as the "parlous state" of criminal defence solicitors.
'On the civil side, our heat maps have shown the growth of advice deserts. Investing in civil legal advice can nip problems in the bud and save significant expenditure in other public budgets.
'We would urge the Ministry of Justice to follow through on its commitment to address the sustainability of the civil legal aid system, as well as implementing the recommendations of Sir Christopher’s review as soon as possible.'
The figures were revealed by justice minister James Cartlidge in a written parliamentary response to Labour's Afzal Khan.
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