Prosecution barristers are likely to be working under the same controversial high-cost cases regime that covers criminal defence counsel by the end of the year, it has emerged.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said the plans are aimed at achieving parity between pay for the prosecution and defence, and will follow a consultation exercise with the bar.

The existing scheme for defence lawyers has provoked unofficial strikes by angry criminal law barristers, who have argued that it has resulted in cuts that have left them earning as little as 20 per hour.

The Department for Constitutional Affairs subsequently called a review of the very high-cost cases scheme, which is scheduled to end on 28 May.

The CPS spokesman said its lawyers are now keeping a close eye on how the review pans out.

'We are participating in the review, and that will inform how the scheme works,' he explained.

A Bar Council spokesman said that it would be happy to co-operate with a 'mirror' scheme for prosecution barristers if problems with the scheme for defenders were ironed out in the review.

'We are content with the plans to extend the scheme - as long as a satisfactory structure can be achieved for defence work in the first place,' he said.

He said the council was hoping the review would come to a speedy answer to the problems with the existing scheme, as many barristers are currently 'keeping cases on the rails through one means or another' until a decision is made.

Rodney Warren, director of the Criminal Law Solicitors Association, said any attempt by the CPS to control costs was to be welcomed, but he called on the government to show a greater appreciation of the impact of cross-departmental policies when it is devising funding for criminal lawyers in general.

'If there is a determination to control costs, there must be a recognition of what the costs drivers are in the first place,' he argued.

By Paula Rohan