In his recent comment article, Derek Hill says that 'in reality, the previous [legal aid] system was... financially unsustainable, a drain on the public purse that could not be justified' (see [2006] Gazette, 9 November, 12).


The cost to the public purse of the criminal legal aid system is between a quarter and a third of 1% of the government's annual expenditure.



In addition, while I cannot comment on the situation in other parts of the country, the number of prosecutions in west Yorkshire has gone down dramatically in the past few months. For example, in Harrogate, the court in which I regularly practise, business has gone down by about a quarter in the past few months because of the decline in prosecutions. This means that the amount of money needed for criminal legal aid will go down anyway, without any need for the alleged reforms proposed by Lord Carter.



Simon Crosfield, Simon Crosfield & Co, Ripon, Yorkshire