Legal aid solicitors will not be surprised to learn that Community Legal Service Partnerships (CLSPs) are not working as intended.

From the start, there have been fears that they would be little more than talking shops which added an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy - a post-implementation review of the service in 2002 warned that solicitors' involvement in them was 'low and diminishing', while there were indications of a bias in favour of the not-for-profit sector.

Little seems to have changed since.

There is nothing wrong with the idea of CLSPs - with the legal aid budget as tight as it is, a more coherent service benefits everyone.

And the research into the pioneer CLSPs as early as 2000 noted how non-solicitor participants overcame their prejudices about the profession and started to see the commitment to service of the poor which is at the heart of legal aid practice.

But it seems that CLSPs have not been able to deliver.

That tight budget also means every penny needs to be spent effectively, and currently the money spent on CLSPs appears not to meet the test.

The report's authors resisted what must have been the considerable temptation to recommend abolishing CLSPs.

Now the structure is in place, there seems little point in doing away with it before an effort is made to make it more effective.

Nobody was crying out for CLSPs before they were introduced - the onus is now on the government to show they deserve to continue.