Orchard in crime work warning

The chief executive of the Legal Services Commission (LSC) has expressed concern over the legal aid budget in the wake of an upsurge in criminal law work which is likely to escalate further.

Speaking at the LSC's annual open meeting last week, Steve Orchard said it had seen a 'significant growth' in the criminal law side of its work.

'The initial warning signals came when calls to the duty solicitor call centre went up 6% in one year,' he explained.

'Duty solicitor work makes up a third of all criminal work, and this upward pressure on funding in crime needs to be taken into account because the potential impact on civil is great.'

Mr Orchard warned that the money pumped into the police following last month's comprehensive spending review would lead to more arrests and more suspects in custody.

He added that the LSC had not anticipated this increase, and he would be having discussions with the government about how legal aid's own 'tight settlement' in the review - an additional 181 million over four years - was supposed to fund the extra work.

Speaking after the meeting, Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association (CLSA) and chairman of the Law Society's access to justice committee, agreed that if the government did not provide adequate financial support for all agencies involved in criminal justice, the whole system was in trouble.

'The government doesn't seem to understand that if you squeeze the balloon in one place it will expand in another,' he said.

Meanwhile, solicitors have renewed their call on the government to stop 'bashing' criminal defence lawyers in the media.

Speaking at a Law Society debate hosted jointly by the CLSA and the London Criminal Court Solicitors Association, Society President Carolyn Kirby told Home Office minister Lord Falconer: 'Easy jibes about defence lawyers are at best misleading, but they also lead to a deteriorating public confidence in the criminal justice system.'

The minister said confidence would only grow if the public could see everyone in the system working together to make improvements.

'This is an opportune moment for the criminal justice system, and there is a widespread sense of the need for reform,' he added.

l The government this week increased the gross income cap for civil legal aid eligibility from 2,034 a month to 2,250.

The cap was also raised to take account of those people who have large numbers of dependants, and for those in receipt of certain state benefits.

Paula Rohan