Solicitors warned of the consequences of further legal aid cuts this week as the government announced it was to slash £325m from the Ministry of Justice’s 2010/11 budget.

Law Society president Robert Heslett said it was essential that the axe should not fall on legal aid at a time when these services were most needed.

News of the MoJ budget cut came as justice secretary Kenneth Clarke told the BBC that he had offered to cut legal aid as part of the deficit reduction programme. He said the legal aid service needed to be improved, for less money, and promised a ‘sensible’ approach to making savings.

The MoJ said it had nothing to add to Clarke’s comments, but pointed out that the coalition’s programme for government document published last week said that the government will carry out a ‘fundamental review of legal aid to make it work more efficiently’.

In relation to the £325m of savings, the MoJ said cuts would include further reducing discretionary spend in areas such as consultancy, travel, events and postage, including in arms-length bodies. It said it would review change programmes, and IT and communications spend, to ensure that only essential projects are taken forward, and would ‘further tighten’ recruitment to all but the most essential posts.

The MoJ said further measures would include ‘stopping capital projects and delivering the administrative estate – and meeting prison capacity requirements – more efficiently’.

Legal Aid Practitioners Group director Roy Morgan said: ‘Ken Clarke seems very keen to offer up legal aid for cuts. With the payment delays [by the Legal Services Commission], this will be another nail in the coffin and any cuts that are made will add to the bankruptcy fears.’

Morgan noted that Clarke has reportedly described chief secretary to the treasury David Laws as the ‘hatchet man’ of the coalition government. ‘I just hope that Clarke will not be the hatchet man who cuts legal aid beyond all semblance of sustainability’, he said.

Leading legal aid firm Duncan Lewis said any legal aid cuts would harm access to justice.

The MoJ budget cut forms part of £6.2bn in savings aimed at reducing the UK’s deficit, outlined by Laws this week.