Legal aid proposals criticised by government’s own consultant

The Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) approach to cutting legal aid has been criticised by one of its own consultants.

The MoJ commissioned two reports by Otterburn Legal Consulting and management consultancy KPMG to justify its legal aid cuts. However, Otterburn has since criticised the way in which its report was interpreted by the MoJ.

As reported in The Law Society Gazette, the MoJ included in its legal aid proposals a reference to Otterburn to justify its decision that organisations bidding for legal aid contracts should "employ at least one full-time fee-earner for every £83,000 of the contract value". However, Otterburn has since criticised the way that the government has calculated the impact of the cuts, saying the above figure is far too low for firms to be able to create "viable businesses". This could create a dangerous shortage of legal representation for the public that would severely undermine the justice system.

The Law Society has now responded to the MoJ’s calculations. Its president, Andrew Caplen said: "In our view the proposed scheme fails to meet the ministry’s own objectives of ensuring that any future criminal legal aid scheme must be sustainable with sufficient numbers of solicitors doing criminal duty work. The scheme could bankrupt solicitors’ businesses, leaving areas of the country with no legal representation for anyone accused of a crime and depriving vulnerable members of the public from access to justice."