No relief for legal aid

Chancellor Gordon Brown will be accustomed to the glaring eyes of spending ministers and interest groups as he announces the government's latest spending plans.

Lawyers in the publicly funded arena are by no means the most vocal of those interest groups as hospitals, schools and police forces always seem to head the queue.

While this year appears to be little different, their need is even greater.

This week's news that there is to be ring-fenced funding for asylum work may cheer immigration solicitors, but it remains to be seen how much will be set aside annually.

Ring-fencing will take some pressure off other areas of legal aid work, but the 181 million allocated to legal aid services - on top of its 1.7 billion annual budget - over the next four years is disappointing, especially when compared with the nearly 3 billion increase to the Home Office in its fight against crime and the 650 million towards beefing up the courts' technology.

Banging up criminals efficiently is important, but so is access to justice, which legal aid practitioners provide to the most vulnerable.

Perhaps the only people who do not recognise the cash crisis facing legal aid practitioners are the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Lord Chancellor.

Unfortunately, these are the only two people who can resolve that crisis.