SRA aware of fears that criminal legal aid cuts will impact wider profession

The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) will investigate the impact caused to firms by the criminal legal aid fee cuts because of fears that too many firms collapsing will have a heavy toll on the legal profession.

The government's plans to make fee cuts of 17.5% to criminal legal aid by 2015 will cause the collapse of many smaller firms. As reported by Legal Futures, it has also been predicted that the consequences of this would also affect the wider legal profession, which would have to fund interventions and, it is to be hoped, plug the gaps in services.

Mike Haley, the SRA's director of supervision, said: "Supervision have built into their plans for 2014 a project on the impacts of recent changes on criminal legal aid firms and how the risks are being managed by firms. The exact nature of the changes to be made by the MoJ are not yet settled and so it is too early to say what the impact will be."