Bar Council highlights flaws in government's legal aid plans

The Bar Council has warned that the government's plans to introduce competitive tendering for legal aid contracts and deny defendants the right to choose a lawyer will undermine the UK justice system's good reputation among the international community.

The warning came in the Bar Council's 150-page response to the Ministry of Justice's controversial legal aid consultation paper. In forming its rebuttal, the Bar Council drew on expert economical and statistical analysis to highlight numerous flaws in the government's proposals. The Bar Council's conclusions not only highlighted the reputational damage that the UK justice system will suffer internationally, but also that:

• failure to include an equality impact assessment will damage society by depriving justice to its most vulnerable and socially excluded groups;
• price competitive tendering proposals that will deny defendants the right to choose a lawyer are in contravention of basic human rights;
• the diversity of the legal profession will be reduced; and
• the proposals will destroy the criminal Bar and the majority of criminal solicitors' firms.

Maura McGowan QC, chairman of the Bar, said: "There is no avoiding the simple fact that these proposals would move us from having a justice system which is admired all over the world, to a system where price trumps all. [Price-competitive tendering] may look as though it achieves short-term savings, but it is a blunt instrument that will leave deep scars on our justice system for far longer. Further cuts to the scope of civil legal aid will limit access to justice for some of the most vulnerable. That is a legacy of which no government should be proud."