A government-backed review of the community legal service highlights the concern with which publicly-funded work is being viewed.

Yet Janet Paraskeva argues that unease remains about solicitor remuneration.

April saw the publication of the independent review of the Community Legal Service (CLS), which had been conducted at the request of the Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA) by Matrix Research and Consultancy.

The Matrix report made fascinating - though not exactly surprising - reading.

The authors of the review note that there is uneven provision of services across England and Wales, with some regions completely lacking publicly funded legal services in some areas of law.

Other providers of legal services are frustrated that they are not able to provide funded advice to everyone that needs it because they have already used up the allocations awarded to them.

And the CLS faces further problems because its budget is so vulnerable to changes (or, more accurately, increases) in spending on criminal legal aid.

Welcome to our world.

None of this is new - and the Law Society has been reporting these problems regularly to the DCA and the government.

However, while it may not be news to the legal profession, at least now these problems have been confirmed to the DCA in an objective review that the department itself commissioned and I hope that it will now take real notice.

The review also makes some useful recommendations about how to improve the delivery of civil legal aid.

The fact that the DCA commissioned the Matrix review reflects the progress that has been made in pushing the issue of legal aid up the agenda.

But this is really just a start.

Having pressed the government to undertake a wide-ranging review of legal aid, we are really pleased that it has now launched its fundamental legal aid review to look at the long-term future.

We have argued that such a review would need, in particular, to:

- Address how to protect the civil legal aid budget and improve the forecasting of the impact of justice initiatives;

- Investigate the possibility of a new contract that would reduce bureaucracy and enhance the quality of delivery;

- Explore new methods of delivery and greater use of alternative dispute resolution, and;

- Consider how to develop schemes that will encourage new lawyers to pursue legal aid as a career.

The Law Society will need to continue its work, together with practitioner groups, to address the problems facing publicly funded legal services.

When in 2003 we carried out extensive consultation with solicitors about the problems facing legal aid, we tried not simply to revisit old territory, but to look in new directions.

The result was a set of detailed proposals in a paper that was approved by the Society's council in the autumn of last year.

These proposals included looking at the contracts of GPs and dentists as a potential model for solicitors as well as the possibility of a salaried service and much more extensive use of IT and telephone services.

Our approach is now broad and much more open-minded than in the past - and focused on the needs of the client rather than the lawyer.

Addressing the overall needs of the system rather than just solicitors' remuneration has helped us to talk more frankly and more usefully with those able to help change things - colleagues in the DCA, the Legal Services Commission (LSC), the Treasury and the government's social exclusion unit.

This is not to say that the question of remuneration is ignored - getting that right will be an important part of any reformed system.

But in the search for an improved legal aid system it would be naive to think that this could simply be predicated on an across-the-board increase in funding.

That said, we have recently secured a package of measures with the DCA and the LSC.

About 10 million over two years will improve the arrangements in some areas of publicly funded work.

In criminal cases, the provision of one hour's post-charge advice and assistance, which the government had planned to discontinue after 17 May, has been restored.

And for some housing matters there will be improved rates for solicitors appearing in these cases in the County Courts.

There will also be an additional 1 million a year for training grants for students wishing to enter legal aid practice.

Any effective legal aid system must aim to provide equal access for all to high quality legal services, and focus particularly on combating social exclusion.

The Law Society remains concerned that unless the resources available for civil legal aid are protected, millions of people will find that the ability to enforce and defend their legal rights will depend more on the depth of their wallet than on the merits of their case.

For some, it may depend on their postcode too.

In a society that prides itself on the excellence of its justice system, this is surely unacceptable and I hope that any government review will address this.

The moves we are beginning to see could herald a new and more rounded approach by the government to this issue and one that recognises the important role that legal aid plays, both in protecting people's rights and in preventing the descent into social exclusion that faces too many.

It must also acknowledge the central role of solicitors in that aim and the continued need for appropriate remuneration.

Janet Paraskeva is the Law Society chief executive