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The debate about how to fund expert evidence is not new. There is simply no governmental will to improve the system and in any event, few in MOJ actually understand how legal aid funding actually works. NHS consultants have always done well out of providing expert evidence in both criminal and family matters with their fees at times being as much, if not more than the solicitors.
The way experts are currently funded has led to the legal aid fund paying for them rather than funding the representation of individuals. This is not a tenable state of affairs, ideally there should be separate funding for expert evidence or NHS Consultants do it as part of their NHS contract; it would be interesting to see how that proposal was considered by them.
An FOI request to the LAA to ascertain how much money is spent on expert fees in total and as a percentage of the legal aid spend would be useful. I suspect that the reply is likely to be that they cannot provide that information as expert fees are disbursements and not broken down by category.
Expert evidence is often essential but there needs to be a better way to find it than at present, good on the regulator for saying so.